The hunt is on for an Indian version of the Spice Girls! Founder of the five-girl British pop sensation Far West Entertainment is scouting for five fresh faces from India, Korea, China, Japan and Philippines to create a pan-Asian all-girl band to storm the international music scene.

Titled Project Lotus and produced by Eliot Kennedy, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter known for launching the Spice Girls and working with Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin and Robbie Williams, any girl between the age of 18 and 25 who can sing in English stands a chance.

On the Indian judges’ panel are music director Shamir Tandon, Jennifer D’Souza, a western voice trainer, and Manish Porwal, managing director of talent management group Alchemist.

The team scoured Pune and Mumbai before stopping in Calcutta on Tuesday, and has now headed for Delhi and Bangalore.

“Our focus right now is the voice, tone and pitch. Things like style quotient and whether they can dance will come in later during their training in Hong Kong,” stressed Manish.

(From left) Judges Shamir Tandon, Jennifer D’Souza and Manish Porwal with their special guest for the Calcutta leg Bickram Ghosh who dropped in to cheer the contestants

Calcutta produced nearly 30 hopefuls, over two days of selections, who will take part in the Indian finals in Mumbai on September 3 and 4, while a similar process is on in other parts of Asia.

“It was interesting to find a lot of young girls from the Northeast who came to audition. We’ve selected two from this leg,” revealed Manish.

The five Indian finalists, whittled down by Eliot Kennedy and David Liu, a choreographer and former Olympic skater, will be flown to Hong Kong where they get to battle it out with 20 contestants from China, Japan, Korea and Philippines. The girls will be trained and groomed in singing, dancing, fitness and media interaction at a six-week training academy in Hong Kong.

Unlike many TV reality shows, this contest is not based on audience polls. The girls will be taken to task every week by different celebrity judges and mentors including original Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow, All Saints and other biggies of international music.

In the end, five talents — one from each country — will be chosen to go to the UK to record an album before their big bang debut concert and tour year-end. Project Lotus will be aired as a 14-part series on Zee Cafe from mid-October.