More than 50 independent artistes jam on one stage

It rained music in the city when over 50 independent artistes came together at a Lower Parel mall and turned it into a gig venue to celebrate non-film music. From seniors like Sunita Rao, Mame Khan, Luke Kenny and Sherrin Varghese (A Band Of Boys), to the younger generation aces like Manasi Scott, Ananya Birla, DJ Smokey, Sanah Moidutty, Delhi Indie Project and Fardikot, among others — everyone sang their hearts out at the multi-genre musical event, Awestrung Reloaded.While Mame won hearts with his rendition, Kesariya Balam, Manasi sang Constellation.
Sunita Rao couldn’t contain her excitement, as she spoke to BT about the revival of independent music in India. “I’m glad that musicians who do non-film music are getting good platforms. It’s ironic that the major part of the funding goes to Hindi film music, but if independent musicians believe that it is possible to make music that doesn’t belong to films, such events that are solely dedicated to independent music will happen more often. The road is not easy for independent musicians in India. So many artistes have been struggling for years to earn an identity. But the times are changing. It took me almost 20 years to get into the hearts of the people. But today, you can win hearts in seconds,” said the singer, who made the audience groove to her song, Wada Karo.
The event started in the afternoon with acts by Sayantika Ghosh, Jatin Khurana, Folk Masti, Imcha Imchen, Elektro Sufi and Praveer Barot, among others, while the closing acts of the gig were Ananya, Suneeta, Mame and DJ Smokey. Approximately 1,000 music lovers (rotating crowd) gathered to witness the recitals.
Ananya, who performed her single, Better, thanked the expansion of digital platforms for the revival of indie music in the country. “I perform live quite often, as that brings me closer to the audience. The surge in the digital space has bridged the gap between countries. As we enjoy international music sitting in India, similarly, people across the world can access Indian music at any given time. Musicians can also share their work easily, thanks to technology, which has opened up more opportunities. People have become more open-minded and they realise that music is a universal language. The language barriers are coming down, so whether it’s English, Hindi, rap, hip-hop, rock or pop, people are accepting all the genres in India,” she said.
Sherrin said that music aficionados are veering towards non-film music for originality, because Bollywood has been following a herd mentality of late, doing everything that happens in the West. “We feel lucky to belong to the generation that used to be part of the indie pop lot in the past. We had to survive on our own for a while, but thank God, the independent scene has revived and we have platforms where so many indie artistes come together on the basis of their merit. The shelf-life of Bollywood songs is barely one-and-a-half weeks, but non-film songs survive for years. That’s the beauty of the kind of music we make,” he said.