Music & Dance: ISA's My Big Fat Indian Wedding
(caption for the above picture: Performers in Dunedin at the My Big Fat Indian Wedding concert (picture courtesy: Gravity Events, Dunedin: For more pictures of the event, please check their facebook page))
- the Otgao university's Indian students' flagship cultural event featured 135 performers
Dancing to Bollywood songs - from past and present, and acting out melodramatic scenes, the musical – My Big Fat Indian Wedding - a student led and directed musical rocked the South of New Zealand recently. An initiative of the Indian Students Association (ISA) of the University of Otago, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the event featured over 135 performers – the largest ever. “We had the founders of ISA returning from around the country to attend the event this year. It is our biggest event of the year, which takes place over two-days. We sold out Saturday tickets a week before the show, which is the earliest ever, and on Friday night, we were at 90 percent capacity. Over both nights, we had over 870 people attending the show,” informed Neeraj Khatri, former President of ISA.
“There has already been a lot of interest by students to be a part of the 2017 show which is amazing. A full video of the show will be placed on YouTube very soon for people to see the vibrancy of the Indian community down south. Post event, a new ISA committee was elected, and they have already hosted Jalsa – a garba night two weeks back. This year, it was in the Union Hall - a much bigger venue than previous years indicating the growing interest and numbers in ISA's annual events,” Khatri added.
After the final show, ISA hosted an after-party with Bollywood music, with ASHWYNZ (from Wellington) and DJ Ajay (from Christchurch) performing, Khatri added. The event was supported by the Dunedin City Council as well as OUSA – the Otago University Students' Association.