Reinventing himself

Why did Balabhaskar go uncoventional, experimented  with new possibilities and thereby stirring a revolution in music? He perhaps pioneered fusion music in the south in the 90’s , exposing Malayalis to embrace something new. Like an old wine in a new bottle, Balabhaskar brought out cover instrumental versions of mainstream movie songs, which was quite sensational and people wanted more of it.

Now, the renowned artist is all set to take his zeal to a new direction, and embracing a new phase as a musician. Revamping his band Balaleela and renaming it into The Big Indian Band, Balabhaskar and his comrades are building on a global dream. “Our band aims at creating parellel stream of music beyong the movie music stream,” says Balabhaskar.  

He says that our culture is yet to accept the originality of an artist’s inventiveness. “If you look at the west, there is a wide acceptance for the artist's own creation. Here, the plight of any performer or an artist is the dearth of such an acceptance. Every artist desires to tell his story, more than the others’,” adds Balabhaskar.  The band will have his team, Rajath George, Abhijeeth, William, Abi, Shibu Samuel and Prasanth.

Most importantly, there is more to the revamp. Balabhaskar explains the journey to The Big Indian Band started with the programme ‘Inspire Night’ conducted for the orphaned kids in Thiruvananthapuram. “That night, we made one of the kids, Alvin, a superstar for 10 minutes, with that ambience, cheers and applause. That short time moved me for life, as I could see the happiness and dreams reflecting in his eyes. So we decided to sponsor deserving kids from orphanages to fulfil their dream through our band’s initiative. I felt that as a musician, I could give what I dreamt once, as it satisfies the human in me. I would say, it’s a ‘selfish’ dream,” expalins Balabhaskar.

In the coming days, the band is going to play for the labour camp in Dubai, for the working class men. “More than giving them something to listen to, our aim is to empower them with music. There are lots of talented and deserving people, mostly invisible in these sectors. My inspiration is classical prodigy T.M Krishna, who used to go to fishermen community, sit with them, inspire and give them musical awareness,” says Balabhaskar.

Coming back to the band, Bhalabaskar aims to collaborate with international artists, and perform for art festivals across the globe, to give diverse touch to it, and thus fostering his space to give more room for creativity. He says there is only a limited crowd to who enjoy parallel stream of music. “The rock culture has very limited following in Kerala. For people to relate to artist’s creativity, we should reach out and help understand the diversity of his/her creation. I dream of a time when there is a mutual satisfaction between the artist and audience. That awareness should come. The element of ‘getting forced’ to impress the crowd should remove from the equation; more shared acceptance should emerge.”  

According to Balabhaskar, The Big Indian Band will have individual culture, diverting from doing cover versions of popular songs.  “For that, we are taking the band to a more serious level. I would say Balaleela was more a ‘playful’ level, like the name actually means. Even when I worked with movies like Pattinte Palazhi and Moksham, I had the freedom to express myself as an artist. Now my thoughts have changed, hence the band as well,” laughs Balabhaskar.

The band’s first Hindi album is going to release, with vocals included as well. “It is going to be singles album. This change is my representation of my happiness in doing it,” he concludes.