At Khumaar, music is the hero: Bipin R Pandit on his musical extravaganza

Khumaar, a musical concert, organised by Bipin R Pandit, COO, The Advertising Club, is set to enthrall the audience at the Manik Sabhagraha auditorium in Mumbai on July 2, 2016.

This year, Khumaar is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The idea behind the musical concert was to invite all music lovers from the Advertising, Marketing, Media, PR and Communications fraternity and engage and entertain them with quality entertainment. Today, Khumaar has am audience and following from all sectors.

Over the years, luminaries who have graced Khumaar include Pyarelalji, Pandit Suresh Wadekar, Roop Kumar Rathod, Sonali Rathod, Pradeep Guha, Ramesh Narayan, Prasoon Joshi, Bhaskar Das, Shashi Sinha, Ajay Kakar, Ajay Chandwani, Anurag Batra, Subhash Kamath, MG Parameswaran, Pratap Bose, Sunil Lulla, Bharat Dabholkar, Nagesh Alai, Avinash Kaul, and Pranesh Misra, among many others.

On the eve of the concert, AdGully caught up with Bipin R Pandit to know about what he has planned for the concert this year, engaging the audience and more. Excerpts:

AdGully (AG): In its 10th year, what special you have lined up for Khumaar?
Bipin Pandit (BP): Last year, we started a segment called Khumaar Ki Khoj, where we started providing a platform to talented youngsters. Last time we got a girl from Nagpur, who is today she is singing with Shankar Ehsan Loy and has already done the playback for two Marathi songs. This year, there’s a boy from Delhi who is trying to become a singer and is in Mumbai looking for a suitable break. So, we have given one song to him and we will be very happy if he also goes on to become a star. Secondly, there will be an AV which will showcase the 10 years of Khumaar and the people who have graced the event over the years, like Suresh Wadekar, Ghulam Abbas Khan, Roop Kumar Rathod, Pyaarelal ji. I have also compiled a coffee-table book on Khumaar.

AG: How has the journey been over the last 10 years? How did you come up with the name Khumaar?
BP: Khumaar means Nasha or intoxication. I feel that whatever you do in life should have Nasha, in the good sense, of course. When you are doing work for your organisation, you should experience Nasha in it, you should experience the thrill out of it. Similarly, music can provide you a high which can take you very close to God. So I feel that one must live life in a state where he is enjoying and is expressing everywhere and that is why we chose the name Khumaar. Here, the Nasha is through songs and music.

AG: How has the journey been over the last 10 years?
BP: I have been performing on stage for 27 years now. I always wanted to get into music because that is my forte, my love, my passion, and my madness. When I started Khumaar, we had the show at the Welingkar School, which had a capacity of around 275-300 people. Then we had the show at the Savarkar Hall in Shivaji Park, which had a capacity of around 480 people. With the growing number of audiences, the show is now being held at the Manik Sabhagraha auditorium, which has a capacity of 800 people. Also, this was my first digitised show and in the first 4-5 days it has been outsourced.

AG: What are the challenges faced in organising a musical event in today’s scenario?
BP: The biggest challenge is the growing number of entertainment programmes. How do you position your show differently from the others. To cite an example, there are many shows which celebrate one singer or one music director. And each one competes against each other. My motive has always been to showcase the diversity in Indian music, so in a single event you can enjoy the songs of Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Shankar Jaikishan, Kalyanji-Anandji, SD, RD, Roshan, etc. So in my show, music is the hero and not any individual.

AG: What is the average cost of organising a musical event like Khumaar?
BP: It is Rs 10-12 lakh.

AG: Have you tied up with any sponsor for the event?
BP: Well, over the years I have groups like Tata, Dainik Bhaskar, Chitralekha supporting the event.

AG: Who are the Unsung Heroes that you plan to highlight at this year’s event?
BP: The unique thing about my show is proper segmentation. For instance, I will have one segment of Solo Songs. After that there will be a segment of Qawwalis, Classical, Duet. I may introduce another segment called Sufi and Ghazal in the future. And finally, songs based on raag Bhairavi, which will conclude the show.

AG: How do you manage to juggle between the role of Advertising Club’s COO and your singing ventures?
BP: Believe me, it is not an easy job. You know how big advertising events like Goafest and Emvies have become. So managing those in itself is a huge challenge and takes months of preparation. And now I have realised that Khumaar, too, has become a very huge event. So, it does take a toll and becomes quite taxing because I am not only an organiser, but a performing-organiser. I am the founder, owner of the brand and also a compere and mimicry artist. So I have to remember all my dialogues, Sher-O-Shayari, imitation of actors correctly. In case of others, they are mere organisers, they see the admin side. I am seeing both.

My show is attended by the who’s who of the media, marketing, advertising and communication industry. This year, too, several industry experts and brand owners are expected to grace the show. To name a few – Raj Nayak, Piyush Pandey, Kishan Premnarayan, Ajay Kakar, Vikram Sakhuja, Sujeet Ganguly, Sanjay Tripathi, Kalpana Rao, Bhaskar Das, Pradip Dwivedi, and Punitha Arumugam, among many others.