A group of city-based youngsters have taken up the cause of home-born talent. The group, Chitraastra, realised that there was a need to support the growing community of young Telugu singers who have no assured platform — except the Internet of course — to showcase their skills and talent. So to achieve what they had set out to, they recently collaborated with Bottega, a modest coffee shop in Film Nagar and Himanshu Sahni of Sahni Studios to come up with their first-ever live, unplugged show — Encore.
The first session of Encore, that took place on Friday, saw well-known city band Capricio in action, with several onlookers enjoying the performance. Talking about the idea behind the show, Lohit Vedavyas, one of the founding members of Chitraastra, says, “There are many talented musicians in the city and it’s not easy for them to approach a Coke Studio or an MTV Unplugged. We have created a platform where they can come together with someone who will shoot them in action, and share it with a larger audience eventually. We are promoting them and giving the audience something new.”
The team is also keen to increase awareness about regional music among youngsters. “Our aim is to join different kinds of musicians. Most of us would agree that the independent music scene mostly has English songs as a popular choice. We intend to concentrate on regional talent, and thus promote Telugu bands. In 2017, we have just four seasons, all of which will feature Telugu bands,” reveals Lohit. He adds that every season will feature a new band. But even though they have kicked off the show with Capricio, the band will feature in two seasons. “For future seasons, we will be holding auditions soon,” he mentions.
Chitraastra will be taking each show of Encore to social media, helping bands gain a larger visibility. “We want them to get a great visibility. In fact, our aim is to attract people to come back and watch them again and again. That’s a reason we thought of the name Encore, in the first place,” Lohit concludes.
