Shaan, Bappi Lahiri to regale crowds at Bengaluru's Ganesh Utsava

Bengaluru: Bappi Lahiri, Shaan and the Berklee College of Music will perform at the 54th edition of Bengaluru’s Ganesh Utsava, which will kick off on September 5 at National College Grounds, Basavanagudi.

Festival Director Nandish S.M. said the eleven-day festival will be a treat for art, music and food lovers. “Thirty five musicians from Berklee College of Music, are flying down from US to perform in Bengaluru. This is the first time that these musicians would be performing outside the United States,” he said. The world-renowned Berklee Indian Ensemble (part of Berklee College of Music, US) will be paying ‘A tribute to A.R. Rahman’ along with original compositions on September 6. A few of the other highlights this year include the much-acclaimed singers Shaan and Bappi Lahari with their Hindi and Kannada film songs; the one-of-its-kind concert – four drums on one stage – Drum Jam by Ranjit Barot, Gino Banks, Darshan Doshi and Arun Kumar; Vijay Prakash, live in concert featuring Taufiq Qureshi: and film songs and dance performances by our very own Lil champs, Anjana Padmanabhan, Spoorthi and Akshat Singh.

"For Kannada film song lovers, a tribute to S Janaki will also be performed by a one-of-its kind, all-woman band led by Sunitha Murali and Supriya Raghunandanin," says the festival director. The eight-foot tall idol is to be reused for another twenty years and will not be immersed. "For puja and immersion we will use a small idol but this huge idol manufactured in fibre would not be immersed for another twenty years and hence we are glad to go eco-friendly," adds the facility director.