ANNIVERSARIES:
ANNIVERSARIES:
On the eve of the 8th year of Bollyboom concerts, we caught up with Mr. Manuj Agarwal, CEO, Percept Live, to share his views on the journey so far, Artists, and his competition.
How has Bollyboom progressed over the years?
Bollywood music has been a vital part of every Indian and by combining this with the beats of Electronica, state-of-the-art production, SFX, and the best of Bollywood Artists we knew we could offer a brand new BDM twist and create a unique Live Entertainment experience for the huge numbers of Bollywood music fans all across India and overseas.
Bollyboom was launched in 2013 and featured legendary music maestros Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Salim-Sulaiman, Shveta Pandit, Shraddha Pandit, and Shadab Afridi who set the stage ablaze with their foot-tapping, head-banging music specially created to the infusion of electro beats of DJ Lloyd, DJ Nik & AJ, and Acid. Over the years we chose the most popular
Punjabi Bollywood / Pop Artists like Guru Randhwa, Diljit Dosanjh, Honey Singh, Badshah, Amyway and many more who are immensely popular amongst the youth.
Seeing its growing popularity, Bollyboom evolved into multiple formats. We launched Club formats which ensured a national reach and also gave us an ability to introduce and promote young upcoming Bollywood DJ talent pan India.
A pioneering initiative saw us take over popular traditional Indian festivals under the Bollyboom banner and create a brand new revived experience for the youngsters who were already used to celebrating festivals such as Holi, Valentine’s Day, Baisakhi, Friendship Day, Christmas and New Years Eve with popular Bollywood music. ‘Bollyboom’ is the ONLY all
India and even International brand in this space.
We have also produced and launched many successful International Bollyboom shows across Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, South Africa, Singapore and more. In fact Bollyboom Valentine’s 2020 is all set to rock Dubai with Indian pop-rock band Sanam ft. Sanah Moidutty Live on 14 February 2020.
Why have you repeated the star artist Diljit Dosanjh again this year?
This isn’t a repeat artist show but a continuation of the Bollyboom Multi-City India Tour 2019- 20 with Diljit Dosanjh that we had announced earlier in October 2019. The enthralling multi-city pan India tour with the popular Punjabi heartthrob kicked off on 9 November 2019 in Pune and 23 November 2019 in Bengaluru to great success and we are now ready to rock Delhi on
2 February and Mumbai on 22 February, 2020.
Diljit Dosanjh is a remarkable and versatile artist who wowed audiences at the primary Bollyboom editions as also fans around the globe all through last year. Diljit Dosanjh has seen his popularity graph soar not only due to his powerful and foot tapping melodies but also because of his memorable and impactful performances in the Bollywood film industry. We are super thrilled to have him on board as part of our Bollyboom Multi-City India tour. The Pune and Bengaluru shows were a massive hit and we are thrilled to bring him closer to his fans across the cities of Mumbai and Delhi therein offering them an incredible opportunity to witness his electrifying performance live and up close.
Bollyboom has many smaller artists performing during the year; this is more a branded event rather than a Festival? Your view...
The scale and size of Bollyboom cannot be replicated across every metro or town as it wouldn’t be feasible given the limitations across India of infrastructure, venue availability and access, permissions and increased costs translating into expensive tickets for the guests. However given its growing popularity we had to ideate and create new sub formats such as mini Arenas, Pop Ups and Club formats which not only ensured a greater national reach, but also gave us an ability to introduce and promote young upcoming Bollywood DJ talent pan India.
Bollywood Music has been a lifeline of India for ages now. Every Disc, Lounge, Club, Wedding, Birthday Celebration prominently has Bollywood music being played in its original & remix form. Percept Live’s Bollyboom events offer an extra edge – not just the variety of both established and new, upcoming Talent across cities, but also an intrinsic mix of the best of live
entertainment elements spanning live percussionists, exotic live performers, curated F&B and above all, a safe, secure, seamless experience for all attendees making any Bollyboom show a success time and again.
How do you look at BollyBoom as compard to the other 'Bolly' events?
Having the ‘first mover’ advantage with Bollyboom certainly gave us an edge compared to many other ‘me-too’ Bollywood live event shows that popped up after Bollyboom’s launch in 2013. Bollywood music infused with the beats of Electronica is a phenomenon that's become only more and more popular since inception and has become the number one music choice of
the youth today. And proof of this is seen in brand Bollyboom’s phenomenal growth over the past 7 years across India and overseas.
We also undertake a lot of research, given the dynamic pulse of the millennials. Over the past 7 years we have continuously innovated, tested, experimented, and introduced newer and multiple variants recognizing the potential of Bollyboom across India. Bollyboom offers not only the latest trending artists and tracks but also an amorphous blend of Trance, House, Hip
Hop, Electro Funk, Synthetic, Pop, Club Music, Techno, Trance, Hardstyle and Dubstep to keep up to step with whatever is trending and popular with our fans. Our focused dedication towards delivering the very best is how we have remained successful and grown versus a sea of impressionist Live Entertainment options available in the market today.
Our brand name and credibility has also certainly helped - Percept Live has been instrumental in blazing trends in the music and entertainment industry since decades and fans know that any Live Event IP from the Percept stable offers a unique, state-of-the-art, guaranteed VFM experience. We already had a huge fan following with the youth across India & overseas
courtesy Sunburn, and another IP from our stable in the live music space carries the advantageous stamp of credibility and authenticity for our fans.
Going ahead I see Bollyboom growing massively to tap many more markets across India as also overseas. We are already working with top talent and in future we will add many more prestigious names to this roster. Plans are afoot to create a curated Bollyboom show which will travel globally like ‘Sensation’. Besides that our calendar will expand to have at least 200 events pan India and overseas annually.
Those of you who have been around from the 1960's through the 1990's will remember the vibrant live music scene in almost every starred hotel in India. Those were the days when you walked into a nightclub like 'Rendezvous' at The Taj Mahal hotel and 'Supper Club' at the Oberoi Sheraton in Mumbai to see curtains going up on a band that was the prime focus of these outlets. Every seat in these restaurants allowed an unobstructed view of the band that performed every night on resident contracts. Today all this has disappeared thanks to some ridiculously high entertainment taxes on live music. Today, non off these hotels have complete bands playing save for a few that feature small duos or solo singers. The Lodhi in New Delhi, recently listed among the world's best hotels, decided to step in and rewind to the good old days. They got Goa's premier jazz quartet 'Jazz Junction' to move to Delhi on a resident contract and the decision has paid off in terms of footfalls generated by the band. Jazz Junction featuring singer Daniella Rodrigues, pianist Tony Dias,
bassist Colin D'Cruz and drummer Angelo Colasco began playing at The Lodhi in June 2018. Four months into the contract the band generated a sizeable following, with quite a few high profile guests choosing to celebrate their special occasion at the Elan bar where the band performs. Against all odds the rewind option proved to be a huge success and hopefully other properties around the country takes the cue to trigger a whole new revival of live music.
