Mumbai: It’s never easy to excavate diamonds out of coal mines. In a country of 1.3 billion people, spotting young talent and nurturing it is equally difficult. This is where Zee CSR along with Give India has come together for ‘Born to Shine’ initiative — a launchpad for talented budding child artists. The initiative seeks to make a difference by recognising young talent in Indian art forms and providing scholarships to help them shine. The scholarship is a way of empowering girls and attempting to revive Indian art forms.
The comapny’s recent press release stated, “India, as a country, offers abundant talent especially when it comes to myriad art forms, but very rarely are these talents recognised and honoured. This has led to a fall in number of artisans in various art forms as there is a lack of motivation among artists who are apprehensive about nurturing their talent with limited means. Born to Shine aims to break these barriers and also help young girls realise their ambitions of emerging as India’s next generation role models. We want to ensure that child prodigies get the complete care and attention they deserve to be able to achieve their fullest potential.
Through Born to Shine, we are not just offering scholarships but also creating an ecosystem where we can identify, nurture and guide child prodigies to success. Zee has always been focused on creating the extraordinary and in joining hands with Give India, we have now got a chance to nurture and mentor extraordinary talent.”
The release further stated “Any girl who has achieved mastery in any art form and is below 15 years can apply for the Born to Shine scholarship. The reward is a scholarship of three years that will ensure these prodigies can reach their fullest potential. The 6 weeks application process will be open across all languages and geographies and will help in shortlisting 100-300 child prodigies. The top thirty across the country will receive scholarship for honing their skills and accomplishing maestro status.
Through this initiative, we plan to reach out to more than 60,000 schools and make selections without any kind of bias or discrimination. Both virtual and physical format will be used to select the candidates.”
Umesh Kr Bansal, Executive Vice President, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited said, “As a brand, we are always striving unwaveringly to deliver excellence. We are constantly pushing ourselves to make the world a better place through meaningful actions that drive impact. Born to Shine is a fruit of that attempt, and we hope this initiative will help us make a big difference to the world of artists and child art prodigies. Seeing them excel would give us tremendous joy because there’s nothing quite exciting as achieving the impossible.”
