Saregama India Ltd will conduct a statewide talent hunt across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to choose the best band.

Music maestro A.R. Rahman, one of the judges, will select the finalists. Vasundara Das will also be one of the judges.

A press release for Saregama said Rahman has been the first to give credits to his musicians on his inlays, such as Shivamani and Shankar Mahadevan who have worked with him.

Auditions for this contest are to be held in Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirunelveli, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Rajamundri and Tirupathi (Andhra Pradesh).

The criteria and challenge for selection require that each band compose music for the lyrics of Vaalee who will write on the theme of "Hope".

The thirteen week half-hour episodes would be telecast on Sun TV and Gemini TV. The winning band in Tamil and Telugu will cut an album with Saregama India. Mirinda is sponsoring the Tamil programme and 7UP the Telugu version.