Thaindian News

By Shilpa Raina
New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) On their first ever India tour, American boy band Backstreet Boys is not only excited about meeting fans and musicians - its members are only familiar with “Slumdog Millionaire” music so far - but also looking forward to traditional cuisine.

“Indian food is something that’s definitely on our checklist. Nothing in particular, but by the end of our trip to India we should be able to name a few favourites,” the band members told IANS in an e-mail interview.

The band, which has given hits like “Quit playing games”, “Get down”, “Show me the meaning of being lonely” among others, is all set to rub shoulders with legendary singer Richard Marx, South African alternative band Prime Circle & Jayce Lewis along with some Indian rock bands at the annual Rock ‘N India music festival in Delhi and Bangalore on Feb 20 and Feb 21 respectively.

The band also has plans to meet some Indian musicians because so far they are only familiar with A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning music for “Slumdog Millionaire”.

“Our exposure to Indian music so far is limited. Probably, only songs from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which we thought were great. So while we are in India, we are definitely looking forward to checking out the songs and dances and may be even meet some musicians,” said the boy band.

Formed in 1993, the pop band was made up of A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. Later in 2006, Richardson left the group to pursue other interests.

Now the four-member band is excited about performing for Indian fans, and want to pick up some Hindi too.

“We intend to pick up some Hindi while we are in India,” said one of the band members.

“This is our first time in India. We know we have a huge fan base here. We have run into many Indians at our shows, especially in Europe, who walk up to us and asked us to tour India. Now that we’re finally getting the opportunity, we are looking forward to performing for our Indian fans,” they added.