Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Shadab Khan

No masks, only moves

Dancers break into a jig by the Carter Road Amphitheatre on Sunday. Pic/Shadab Khan

Jamming to support

Mame Khan

"The COVID-19 crisis has severely affected the live music industry. As the nation slowly steps out of lockdown, there is still uncertainty regarding their livelihood. This situation seriously impacts artistes at the grassroots level as well as members working in the live media industry with no access to digital media," asserts Abhinav Agrawal, director, Anahad Foundation (AF). To raise donations towards their welfare, AF, an NGO that works towards empowering folk musicians, will kick off a campaign today titled Together, Louder Stronger.

Jonita Gandhi

The digital event produced by Believe Entertainment will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube and will feature a star-studded line-up of 20 performers including Mame Khan, Jonita Gandhi, Shaan, Bhuvan Bam, Parikrama, and Benny Dayal. It promises to be a lively gig, and Agrawal added, "The campaign will serve as an emotional gesture that will give respite to the unsung, unseen heroes of the performance world."

Big win for a short film

We had reported in these pages last month that Bittu, an Indian short film, had been shortlisted for The Student Academy Awards. It's an annual competition that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - the hosts for the Oscars - organises for filmmakers who are still in college and university. And news now filters in that the film has emerged as one of the winners at the event, leaving the cast and crew understandably thrilled.

Shreya Dev Dube, the short's Mumbai-based cinematographer, told this diarist, "The win also means that we are now eligible to compete in the short film category of the Oscars in 2021. The story relays a friendship between two girls that is eclipsed by an accidental poisoning at their school. I only hope that stories such as these are distributed for people to watch around the world, because it will only bring us closer." We hope so too.

Look who got snapped

A mural of Anarkali on Chapel Road

Artist Ranjit Dahiya's Bollywood Art Project (BAP) has been making waves in Bandra, ever since it launched in 2012 where public walls were dotted with massive portraits of B'Town stars. And while it might not be possible to walk by them now, BAP will make its virtual debut on the multimedia messaging app Snapchat via augmented reality lenses built by Superfan Studios.

This essentially brings the murals alive through animation and sound. It can be accessed by users with a simple search on Snapchat or by scanning snapcodes located close to the murals. Having loved the lenses, Dahiya said, "We created the Bollywood Art Project as a way to celebrate and memorialise the cinematic history of Bollywood, and so it's really amazing to see how technology is furthering this mission in such a unique way."

All for the artiste

Indians don't only love their music, but their musicians, too. That's what a study commissioned by a leading music streaming service suggests. They found that music listeners in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur, and Goa have a higher tendency to follow their favourite musicians and bands on social media, as compared to the average music listener. And out of the 18,000+ respondents surveyed, 70 per cent prefer listening to artistes not many people have heard of. Sounds good to us.

Gaitonde rules

NS Bendre, Untitled (View of Mandu), 1982. Pic courtesy/Saffronart

Last week, auction house Saffronart held a virtual live auction of modern and contemporary art, which also marked its 300th edition. On closing, they announced a total sale amounting R66.4 crore. Another win was that a VS Gaitonde piece from the collection of Sabira Merchant, was sold for R35.5 crore and earned the distinction of being the second-highest price achieved for the artist and for a work of Indian art in auction worldwide. About the milestone, co-founder Dinesh Vazirani said that the Gaitonde work and world records for artists Natvar Bhavsar and M Sivanesan is, "a testament to the strength and legacy of Indian art to endure and flourish even in difficult times."

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