The pandemic has kept us home locked. But that has not locked up entertainment. Celebs from around the globe are doing their bit to keep spirits rocking through digital concerts, dance workshops, music jams and even a crafts mela for shopaholics. SHALINI SAKSENA tells you more

Just because it is a lockdown, doesn’t mean that one has to give up live concerts. It could be a Lady Gaga or Chris Martin from Coldplay or even Pink who let the world in as she learnt how to play the piano. Back in India, B-town celebs Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan, Hrithik Roshan and many others came on Facebook live for a four-hour charity event to raise funds for COVID-19 warriors and keep people entertained.

Then there are others who are making fans laugh away their woes by either holding live ticketed shows on Zoom app or posting audio clips or videos on Insta.

Take Amit Tandon. He has been busy not only holding workshops on comedy writing to those who are willing to learn for a fee that goes towards charity, but is also making people laugh on Zoom app.

“There were two-three things that started the minute the lockdown began. First, I knew there will be no live physical performances for the next three-four months. So, I started online workshops for a fee; the money goes to a charity. I knew that teaching was easier than doing a show on a digital platform. We had people from five countries taking these five-hour classes spread over two days. In the process, I learnt how to use the app effectively. Second, I started getting offers to do corporate shows online and did them. Third, I had to do a mindset change, to do online shows,” Tandon says.

For this, he had to change his body language. In the beginning, he would perform as a stand-up artist. Now, he sits and acts like he is having a conversation with his friends in his drawing room. This has helped him get his body language right. He has also had to concentrate on getting his facial expressions correct.

“On stage, one has to focus on the body posture as the stage is six feet away. For online, one has to take care of facial expressions as the camera is only two feet away. I had to master all these changes including how to use the app. We have a group of stand-up artists; the 35 of us got together to learn how the it worked and shared our experiences and came up with best practices. Now I am regularly holding ticketed shows. We are also trying to rope in open micers. After the lockdown, their source of income has disappeared. We get a comedian to open the show. He then he also administers the call for some money. On the app, when I keep everyone on, if one of them has a cranky kid, there is a disturbance, this person mutes all that. I have also started doing shows for the US audience as per their time,” Tandon tells you.

Tandon also had to change how he delivers content online. He tells you, that while the content is more or less similar, there are some changes. “The jokes have to different. One has to repeat lines online since sometimes, the sound quality may not be good. One has to louder and be closer to mic,” Tandon says whose ticketed show are not for more than 50 people but for corporates it can go up to over 2,500.

Stand-up artist Anubhav Bassi has been keeping his fans entertained by posting audio clips on Insta.

“People ask me to post videos from my previous shows. They don’t realise that it is not always possible to record all live performances. Though, I am not creating any new content, I am posting behind the scene clippings from many of my shows. I am trying to edit them, make sense out of it and posting them. Also, people who are on this social platform are keener to know me personally. I don’t have any intentions of creating anything new but if I find something funny for that day, I post it,” Bassi says who is busy thinking of content and penning it down for his shows once the lockdown opens.

“The content obviously revolves around lockdown. It also depends on what my mood is on a particular day. Like I had tweeted: If you think that your house is small, koi pochcha laga kar dekhe. While I am busy writing, I am not sure how much of it will actually find itself in my live shows,” Bassi tells you. People call him a storyteller, but he disagrees. “I only do one kind of comedy, it is anecdotal,” Bassi says.

Actor Nitin Arora who hosted online Gratitude Concerts, to salute the medics featuring artists like Sonu Nigam and Sunil Grover, tells you that the idea to hold the concert came while he was walking the terrace and talking over the phone about the lockdown and that there was need to do something for frontline warriors. “It took us two days to organise the first show. The minute the idea took root, I called Sonu Nigam. In fact, he was the first one to recommend that we do something digitally once the lockdown began. But since we are a company that does large events, I was not too sure. But once the idea stuck, I called him. The problem was that he was in Dubai so he had to set up the equipment himself and play the instrument. But he worked hard and came through beautifully,” Arora recalls.

It was not easy for Arora to have a mindset change. To do a show digitally was not something that the actor had even thought about. But there is an adage: Necessity is the mother of invention. “It was the need of the hour and I jumped right into it. The show had to reach 20,000 doctors so we planned things accordingly and were able to pull it off. We have done 10 shows and the response has been overwhelming,” Arora says who hosted the show as well.

He tells you besides having to wrap the mind around doing an online show, it was stranger to host it with no audience.

“It was so strange. When we did the first show, it was just Sonu bhaiyya, Sunil Grover and me. I knew there were some 19,000-20,000 medical staff was watching but for me there were just the three of us. On Zoom, when you are talking, you are the bigger picture and the others are smaller one. I have hosted over 4,500 shows, I had never looked at the script. But here, I was scared and had to practice in front of the mirror. But the three of us cheered for each other and it became easier,” Arora says.

Whether this is going to be the norm for the industry is early days, Arora opines. “Every day there are different reports. But we do know that things are not going back to what they were given social distancing for the next few months. However, the charm and thrill to watch a live performance can’t be replicated digitally. A Sonu Nigam or Shaan or Katrina Kaif dancing live gives a different high. We will bounce back but it will take time,” Arora says.

Besides the live performances and the concerts, the digital space is helping people celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. A case in point is Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, which is turning 25. The channel is organising a Live-a-thon and an Ek Desh, Ek Raag event on May 23-24, 2020. It is a 25-hour digital music marathon with over 350 performances by singers that include the likes of Himesh Reshammiya, Javed Ali, Kamal Khan singing from confines of their homes.

Shaan, the host the concert, tells you that he feels honoured to be a part of this. “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa has been close to my heart since the beginning. Seeing it complete 25 years is surreal. I believe that music has a power to uplift people’s moods and am sure the concert will be able to help people rise above the gloom of this pandemic,” he says.

To add to the entertainment factor, Vodafone, as part of its initiative #RechargeForGood, in partnership with BookMyShow has been organising live sessions since April 24. Nine artists perform live from their homes to yours for free. Lift your spirits with great musical performances by artists like Prateek Kuhad, Dhvani Bhanushali, Ankur Tewari and Indian Ocean.

Those interested in classical music need not feel felt out. The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) has been organising digital series — NCPA@Home on its YouTube channel. Last month, the series had seen stalwarts likes of Girija Devi, Mallika Sarabhai and Ustad Zakir Hussain and many more take centrestage. If you missed this fret not. Tune into Kathak performance by Pandit Birju Maharaj on Monday, May 10, 2020 at 6 pm.

Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, head of dance department, NCPA, Mumbai, a renowned Odissi dancer and disciple of Guru Late Kelucharan Mohapatra, tells you that in India, there are some challenges to have digital shows. “The bandwidth being one of them. But the good is that the artists adapt to changing situations and take things in their stride. It is also strange to see reverse of guru-shishya parampara; during COVID-19, it is the shishya teaching the guru how to use technology,” Dasgupta says.

She also tells you that dancers like herself have had to change teaching methodology and gives an example. “If one is taking a Zoom class, one has to keep in mind that the student is not behind you imitating your moves but in front. If I say raise the left hand, I have to raise my right hand on-screen,” she says.

Murad Ali Khan, sixth-generation sarangi player from the Moradabad gharana and son of Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan, says that for an artist a live audience sets the mood but here, there was nobody in front so it was a tad strange.

“But technology has made some many things possible. While I has no audience, I was able to read comments and took cues from it. My reason for coming on the digital platform was to make people take a break from their normal routine. If we can, through our music, make people stay at home, we have done our bit,” Khan says.

Ustad Shujaat Khan, who was part of the HCL Concerts Baithak series opines that the idea of performing with no audience was extremely strange.

“Any kind of music, as oppose to cinema or painting, is a live interaction with humans. When one is performing the energy that comes from notes of the ragas goes to the people and back. But this kind of live performance was really strange. My only apprehension to be part of the digital space stemmed from the technical side and the anxiety that came with it,” Shujaat tells you.

Despite no audience, the sitarist tells you that since he has been performing for nearly 55 years on stage, experience came into play as over the years he has learnt the art to tune out distraction and be in place where he taps into himself and is in a place where he rises above all this and is in a zone where he uses his energy and emotions to play for himself.

Yamini Reddy came onboard the digital platform because even though she has done a lot of stage shows, she wanted to be part of the virtual world. “I was intrigued and then curious how the whole would work. Being on the digital platform, one can reach out to a much wider audience. With virtual concert, one can be anywhere and watch the performance, it transcends borders and time zones,” Reddy says.

There was preparation as well. She had to see where the lighting was good, how to place the camera and what background to choose including curating a background score for the dance performance. She also had to choose music that had a balance of North and South to give an edge to her Kuchipudi performance and even though it was strange to get ready, not wait backstage and wait for the name to be called out, the entire experience was interesting.

Maalavika Manoj aka Mali, who released her single on Spotify’s Radar cover says that she got the inspiration for her single after she watched an episode of Conan Without Borders with a reference to the Syrian war.

“This got me thinking and wrote this single. It is pure coincidence that the song sits perfectly under present situation. I had already recorded the song but we had to get a video done. I reached out to a lot of family and friends from across the globe who sent me five to 10 second videos. I used this footage for my song,” Mali tells you.

However, for her, the digital platform is not something that she would subscribe to.

“What I have observed, presence of people on social media is going down, People are saturated and don’t want to open their apps. There is no replacement for live performances even though there are people who are looking at ways to monetise the digital space. For artists, performing in front of a live audience gives a different feel and the energy can’t be recreated. It is good to have an alternative but everything that is happening right now is temporary,” Mali says.

QUOTEUNQUOTE

We have been doing online concerts for some months now. We also have a digital app. We know how to use technology to bring the artist and listners together online. But for the HCL Concerts — Baithak series — the trigger was COVID-19 and the lockdown that came with it.

We took the idea from traidtional baithaks where the artists would perform and talk about the art form, life’s journey and anecdotes. But to organise a concert — a series of live, virtual Indian classical music and dance performances —  help beat the blues was not easy. The artist was at home with limited access to technology. We had to work even in a situation if the bandwith was low. We had to have a series of calls on how touse the software, how to check bandwith and what angel to put their mobile. But there were many positives. The artists are familiar with social media and had worked with us.

And while the artist didn’t have a live audience in front of him, we ensured that the artists were given a live feedback on FB page.

We have already planned the series to continue till end of May. Since we don’t know when physical concerts will happen, digital concerts will be an important part in future.

We have got great response till now (over 5 million views for the 10 sessions that we have done) through social media platforms and emailers. The artists help as well. We use WhatsApp and send links. We have our own employees; that helps.

— Rohit Kaul, Head, HCL Concerts

Till now we have done 15 live shows on Instagram and each session is for 45 minutes to an hour. Now, that the lockdown has been extended, we are going to extend the programme. The idea is to introduce classic music to the people and how it has evolved through different gharanas. In these sessions we choose a topic and through renowned artists a discussion takes place on how music in their respective gharanas changed. They talk about speciality of their gharanas. For example, Ustad Vilayat Khan has made changes to his sitar; he increased the tumba and even the wires became a little thicker. This gives those interested a sneak peek into the history of music and not just music.

Our live sessions has gems like Murad Ali (sarangi), Nandini Shankar (violinist), Ajay Prasanna (flautist), Ramakant Gaikwad (vocalist) and Alam Khan from the US (live today at 9 pm IST). These people talk about how they are similar with other gharanas and how they are different. People also get to hear these great play from the comfort of their homes. The good part of the riyaz room is that people who don’t understand classical music will get an understanding. We announce our sessions through posters on social media. Artists too do their bit and let people know.

—  Anshul Aggarwal, Founder, Riyaz Room

The India Craft Week (ICW) is an inititative that we have been doing for the last three years. We wanted to bring the designers and artisians together. The world is talking about sustainability, organic, ethical and responsibility. Craft sector is the only sector that can deliver on these counts.

This year, the lockdown happened but we still wanted to continue to create an ecosystem for the craft sector who are fragmented. Hence India Craft Week Digital Preview (global) where people can come and see the work of the artisians and pre-book what they want. We already have a huge following on Facebook. We sent out bulk mail and got amazing response. We pulled in industry people like British Council; India and World Craft Council supported us.

All that people had to do was to log in to our FB page and be part of not just the preview but watch some great performances like exotic dance that they performed from the confines of their homes. It was amazing to see the engagement we got from performers. A folk dance troupe even went to the desert to shoot a video and sent it us. It was brilliant. Those who have missed this preview need not worry. All the recording would be available. Also, the product list will be on our ICW website.

We have to now change our mindset how to shop since social distancing will continue to be a norm. Digital platform is the way forward even though there were challenges to put such a preview on a short notice.

— Somesh Singh,Co-founder,Craft Village