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Brand Saarang gets better
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The IIT-Madras do will focus on India’s folk culture and mass-based entertainment this year, says SUDHISH KAMATH
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PROMISING TREAT (Clockwise from top left) Karthik, Luck Ali and V.V. Subrahmanyam
This year, discover folk. And the exquisite flavours of the earth at Saarang Village.
This year, get set to do your own thing. There’s a prize for Freestyle Solo Dance.
This year, good luck finding a bald guy with black painted finger-nails. The Queen of Sheba wants his head.
This year, bring that ‘Things-to-do-before-you-die’ notebook. Sanjeev Kapoor will help you put together a wish-list of things to eat. And you may be able to cross off quite a few things off that list this year.
The agenda at Saarang 2008 is to make sure you have the time of your life. “We are focusing on entertaining everyone,” says Abhishek .K, cultural secretary. “Mass-based entertainment. Like, the Queen of Sheba. We have had intra-hostels Queen of Sheba, it has always been a part of hostel life. We have loads of fun and we wanted to introduce that to Saarang.”
As Sahil Kini, Events-Core, explains the hostelite’s all-time favourite indulgence: “In Queen of Sheba, we give them a list of esoteric items to find: Say, find a bald guy with black painted finger nails or get a picture taken with the Events-Core. It’s a scavenger hunt, a mass-based event.”
What else is new?
Kini rattles off a big list. “Choreo Nite is our biggest event; it has a footfall of at least 8,000 people. Dance is obviously very popular in Chennai but we’ve never had a solo dance. What we have this time is more of an impromptu dance contest. We have introduced Freestyle Solo Dance. For the final, we will give them a piece to dance for, a couple of hours in advance.”
Saarang will feature about eight workshops and lecture demonstrations in all this year including kalaripayattu, cookery, photography, DJing, hairstyling, short-film-making and dance with guests including Soundarya Rajnikanth and Raghuvaran. “Along with the cookery workshop, we have a fireless Cooking Contest (you have to cook using readymade products and give it an interesting twist). Sanjeev Kapoor will be judging the event,” adds Kini.
“The real big new thing we are trying out this time is Saarang Village where we are trying to promote the folk art, folk cuisine and folk culture of India. We are going to simulate a rural ambience in 800 square metres in an area that will be cordoned off as a new little world with thatched huts and a central performance area. Only ethnic food will be served. We’ve got several folk performances groups lined up.”
Saarang regulars will not miss the usual line-up of five different genre quizzes, literary events and dramatics. In fact, this year’s edition features an inaugural debate on development issues starring teams from St. Stephens, Delhi, NLS Bangalore, NALSAR, Hyderabad and IIT-Madras.
“The outstation registration this year is 1,500. Our capacity was 1,200,” says Abhishek. “We were forced to close them early. We fear we may not be able to accommodate most of them.”
Not just in terms of scale of events and participation, in terms of budget and prize money too, Saarang is certainly the mother of all festivals down South. “Yes, it is by far the biggest thing in Southern India. Mood Indigo does claim greater figures,” says Vijay B.C, Sponsorships-Core. “We have prizes and prize-money worth about Rs. 5-6 lakhs given away this year. Money-wise, we raised about 10-15 per cent more than last year,” he adds.
The boys do not have a policy to disclose actual figures. But given that last year was a 10-15 per cent increase from the half-a-crore budget of the year before, it would be safe to assume that this festival is on its way to becoming among the “biggest-budget” festivals in the country.
Vijay laughs off the claim saying, “Ideally, I would not want to have the tag of having the biggest budget. Because looking at those budgets, it really tells how inefficient you are than how good you utilise it. I prefer the tag of ‘It is the most fun’ cul-fest. We basically have enough to run Saarang extremely comfortably and call whatever pro-show artistes we want.”
Brand Saarang is so powerful that all it takes is eight people headed by the Sponsorships-Core Vijay to raise all the money needed. But getting the money is only part of the job. As PR and Media co-ordinator Anand Natarajan sums it up: “We have two cultural secretaries, 16 core members, at last count there were about 231 co-ordinators and approximately 750 volunteers who have been working on this fest since middle of last year.” They’ve all been spending sleepless nights since New Year.
And given the volume of work that has gone in, it would be quite a sight to see the IITians savour the “Secret of Success” when Lucky Ali and Karthik take stage on Republic Day.
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Pro-shows
l January 23: Prof. V.V. Subrahmanyam Classical Nite; Entry free
l January 24: Choreo Nite; Tickets@Rs.100/130
l January 25: Light Music and Decibels Finals; Entry free
l January 26: Lucky Ali followed by Karthik;
Tickets@200/300/500
l January 27: Firebrands (Singapore) & Prestorika (Delhi); Tickets@130/200
(Tickets available at Odyssey, Landmark and Coffee Day outlets)
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