An insider's account into the Launch of AR45: Rahmanishq smartphone by Celkon Mobile at Kolkata

AR Rahman in different moods during the launch

A.R. Rahman! The name itself springs to the mind the image of a little man, a sorcerer on the music front! And when that man, decides to associate himself with a smartphone that promises to blend the worlds of music and technology, a masterpiece by the name of AR 45 results: the flagship torchbearer of the Rahmanishq series of phones by Celkon Mobile!

Neeti Mohan & Javed Ali

   Graced by the entire line-up of the 

Sukhwinder Singh & Harshdeep Kaur

Rahmanishq team, that’s slated to perform in four cities of India, starting off with Kolkata, and continuing with Vizag, Jaipur & Ahmedabad, the singers, namely Sukhwinder “chhaiyya chhaiyya” Singh, Harshdeep Kaur, Shweta Pandit, Neeti Mohan, Javed Ali, 
Suchismita Dass, and above all, Mr A.R. Rahman himself, it was a starry event that attracted the media by the multitude

         Kolkata had its first appointment with this grand collaboration , in a packed hall at Swissotel, New Town , on 30th September, 2013, when the path-breaking launch of a new smartphone  shook up the tech-world! 4D Holographic launch?? What was meant by that?? Well, the lucky few people who had managed to gain access to this wonderful event, watched awestruck, as augmented reality took a whole new turn, with a shimmering screen displaying the rotating phone, portraying the concept of 3D, while a 4th D was added by a person, performing the stunts in perfect synchronisation with the music,behind the see-through screen!

 In the presence of Mr. Y Guru, Chairman and Managing Director, Celkon Mobiles Mr. Murali Retineni, Executive Director, Celkon Mobiles, took us through the new features of the phone, based on Android JellyBean 4.2.2,and  named AR45,after the legend himself! The crowd really enjoyed the announcement of innovations like ‘shake-to-transfer’ , a feature by which media can be transferred between phones in a couple of seconds , and also the feature that the phone is intrinsically bound to music, what with excellent equalisers to help the listener cater his soul to the music of his choice! But,what really brought the house down was the announcement that the phone would come pre-loaded with AR Rahman’s chartbusters! A trendy new headset would come free with it ,and the High-Definition camera would definitely pack a punch! Priced competitively at Rs 7,999 , the phone would become available across all retailers by October!

      Asked to wield the microphone to utter some priceless words, AR Rahman lauded the indigenous company’s efforts to innovate, and also urged all to back Indian technological endeavours like the one by Celkon Mobile! But he was quick to add rather cheekily, that he himself used all foreign gadgets, since they were not available in india currently!

Sukhwinder Singh shares his experiences,
while Harshdeep Kaur looks on

 Sukhwinder, Harshdeep, Suchismita, Shweta pandit, Neeti Mohan, Javed Ali....turn by turn , everybody admitted to the growing needs to marry music with technology, in this fast paced world! While Sukhwinder added a few anecdotes of his past concerts with AR Rahman , leaving the maestro himself in splits, Javed Ali hoped that the weather in Kolkata,which has been raining incessantly, would hold true, so that Kolkatans are not left ruing a missed opportunity , on 1st October!

Shweta Pandit and Javed Ali are all smiles as Neeti Mohan speaks

AR Rahman flanked by Mr Y. Guru (left) and Mr Murali Retineni (right)

The whole Rahmanishq team

AR Rahman takes questions

    As a parting shot, there was a Q & A session, where some fans got their questions answered by AR Rahman, but he was always ready to deflect the microphone to his junior colleagues, in the talented singers!

The gala lunch was the crown jewel to an entertaining afternoon, with a rocking new phone’s arrival. Before leaving,the stars promised even more delight for the next evening, when the Rahmanishq concert juggernaut starts rolling out at 7PM , at the Salt Lake Stadium!! 




The bloggers for the event, me, Titas Kar (left) and Sammya Brata Mullick (right) at the end.