The Leela’s Musical Path to RoE
As part of its year-long 40th anniversary celebrations, The Leela has released a special commemorative album by sarod maestros Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash.
By Suman Tarafdar
Since its inception, The Leela has charted its own path to create a distinct niche in the Indian hospitality space. A core has been to create distinct identities in the cultural space such as music, culture, literature etc, which seemingly have little to do with hospitality and brutal realities of RoIs.
Well, as it released ‘A Living Raga’, a commemorative album created to mark four decades of The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts and the latest addition to the Melodies by The Leela curation, Anuraag Bhatnagar, Chief Executive Officer, pointed to the RoE (return of emotion) instead.
“What we endeavour to do is to create that emotional connection with the guest,” Bhatnagar said, adding “music which has been crafted, curated, very bespoke with a purpose, creates that subliminal memory. It stays somewhere in the back of your mind and creates a recall, and the recall creates a return. So maybe there is no RoI in the sense of direct RoI, but this definitely leads to the extended experience that you really start relating a brand with.”
Melodies by The Leela
The album was released at The First Listening, a press event unveiling ‘A Living Raga’ at its Delhi hotel in the presence of Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, who also performed at a concert later in the day. Incidentally, the association between the seventh generation musicians and the brand started 15 years ago when the duo had composed an album for the launch of The Leela in Delhi. A further association came when the Chennai hotel opened, with another album released for the occasion.
Composed exclusively for The Leela by Grammy-winning duo, ‘A Living Raga’ has been conceived as a multidisciplinary artistic collaboration that explores what True Indian Luxury sounds like, reimagining Indian classical music for a new India through a contemporary sonic lens.
Created in collaboration with longtime partners Karsh Kale and Sawan Dutta, the album ventures into new musical territories while remaining deeply rooted in India’s artistic heritage. Incidentally, legendary sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, the duo’s father, has collaborated on one of the tracks, Journeymen.
The musical ethos
Recalling the first association with the brand in 2011, Ayaan Ali Bangash said, “It was very interesting and unique for us to do a project which had a brief, which had a vision, and it was truly inspiring. The brand itself truly, I think, resonated with the ethos of my family. I think the importance given to tradition, the importance given to giving respect, the importance given to just the basic celebration of a timeless legacy.”
He went on to say that “music is the greatest wealth we have in our family, so we always use it to celebrate. It’s not a profession, it’s a way of life, it’s a passion. I think this new album was truly like a full circle of the relationship because it was also wanting to do things a little bit more contemporary along with giving respect to tradition.”
Elder brother Amaan too was effusive in his praise for the association. “We have stayed in a lot of hotels, but there’s something very nice about The Leela. You feel very homely. Bahut tabujju diya jata hai guest ko when you enter. The welcome namaskar – which is fantastic – is something you do not see in a lot of hotels. And the music part was a pleasure and honour to be associated with the brand.”
As Anjali Mehra, Executive Vice President-Brand and Communications, pointed out, the Leela has celebrated India’s finest expressions of art, architecture, craftsmanship, cuisine, wellness, and brought to life all of this through the warmth and graciousness of Indian hospitality, guided by our timeless philosophy of Atithi Devo Bhava — guest is God. “For over almost 15 years, music has quietly been an integral part of The Leela experience. Today we are delighted to introduce another expression of this philosophy: Melodies by The Leela, our official sonic identity.”
This album, which has 14 tracks, draws inspiration from the richness of Indian classical ragas while offering a sound that is uniquely The Leela and can be downloaded from Spotify.
