Fawad Khan to return to music with mega Pepsi project

Can they give Coke Studio a run for their money?

KARACHI: The battle of fizzy drinks has begun.  If Coke is tuning instruments for the anniversary episode of Coke Studio, Pepsi is all set to make a show-stopping entry into the music industry. Sources tell The Express Tribune that Pepsi will formally launch their music venture soon which is going to be their biggest advent into music since Pepsi Smash and Battle of the Bands.

“The show totally focuses on harnessing fresh talent,” a source close to the core team of the show told The Express Tribune. “And not just new talent, the purpose of the show is to bring forward new Pakistani bands and their music.”

Apart from giving a platform to new faces, the show will be spearheaded by some of the most well-known faces of the entertainment industry and apparently even Fawad Khan is involved. “We don’t know in what capacity but Fawad is definitely involved in the show big time,” said the source.



Given Fawad’s history as an artist, his inclusion in a music show that focuses on bands makes perfect sense. Don’t forget that his primary claim to fame was his rock band Entity Paradigm (EP) which was discovered in a Pepsi Battle of the bands season. This venture would be more like a homecoming for Fawad who has also appeared on Coke Studio after finding a permanent career in TV and later on in films. Even during the promotions of his Bollywood debut Khoobsurat, he blew everyone away when he sang Amitabh’s Dilbar Meray live on Kon Banega Crorepati.

The project is being done in collaboration with streaming portal Patari which will primarily be responsible for providing fresh talent. When approached for a comment, Patari CEO Khalid Bajwa was not available. Khan’s management team had not confirmed or declined his participation in the project till the filing of this report.



If this project manages to achieve what the core team is planning to then it might end up taking the Pakistani music industry out of its redundancy and revive the long-dead band culture. It’s high time to admit that the last megastars our music industry created in the truest sense were Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar and it has been a downhill journey since then. The likes of Asim Azhar and Uzair Jaswal may come out as the Justin Biebers of Pakistan but they don’t have as much of a following and more so an impact.

On the other hand we do have exceptional bands like Khumariyaan but the instrumental and ethnic nature of their music restricts them to a niche or a foreign audience. Let’s hope that this project actually brings new talent to the fore and doesn’t end up being as futile as the many talent hunts that have failed previously in Pakistan.

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