TT artistes get concerts on Zee TV

LOCAL East Indian artistes have been given an international platform to showcase their talent and a bit of TT’s diverse culture.

Two-time Chutney/Soca Monarch competition winner Nishard Mayrhoo (Nishard-M) has landed a mega contract to produce a series of concerts, which will be aired on Zee TV, for its Divali segment. Zee TV is one of India’s pioneering entertainment channel which provides content in Hindi, English and several regional languages of India.

The nine-nights of 30-minute concerts began airing on November 6 at 8 ppm local time, internationally and throughout the Caribbean, including Guyana and Suriname not only on Zee TV but via Youtube, Facebook and on FundmeTT.

The inaugural show featured an address by the Indian High Commissioner to Trinidad, Arun Kuman Sahu. A later segment will showcase an address from TT’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell.

In his brief address Mitchell welcomed all viewers to TT which he dubbed the cultural capital of the Caribbean.

He said Divali in TT is truly a thing of beauty and one of the largest celebrations outside of India because of our rich Hindu influence.

“This year, the celebration may not be what it usually is but today we’re giving you a taste of what Divali means to TT. These songs, dances and artistic impressions are practiced every year, much to the delight of our visitors.

“Next year in 2021, we hope to welcome you with the light of our smiles and welcoming shores just like Lord Rama was welcomed by his people with the light of deyas ushering in his return. On behalf of the people of TT, I wish you Shubh Divali.”

Nishard’s manager Vishma Ramcharita said she was shopping around for a platform to air a Divali concert which her client wanted to do, when Zee TV, after viewing their last two successful productions, approached them to do a concert series for nine nights, culminating with a marathon of all the episodes on Divali on November 14.

“This is the first time, to my knowledge, Zee TV has given a production of this magnitude to someone outside of India to produce for them,” Ramcharita said.

She said Nishard’s last two concerts had about 500,000 views each and believes this international platform would create greater awareness and demand not only for Nishard, who is also a Carifesta ambassador, but all of the artistes who will be featured in the show.

Some of the artistes include Rama Mohip and the Sargam International Orchestra, Satnarine Ragoo, Johann Chuckaree, Savita Singh, Shiva Chaitoo, Kaveesh The Band, Republic Bank Extraordinaires Tassa Drummers, Veejai Ramkissoon and SRS Live, The Biraha Raja Cultural Group, Shooting Stars Tassa Group, Shivanee Dean as well as the Zeetv Shiv Shakti Dance Company, Khalnayak Academy of Dance, 411 Dance Theatre, Susan Mohip Dance Company Suryarmika Dance Company and SK Dance Academy.

There will also be two segments of fashion featuring Rahul’s Couture out of New York, Armaans Bridal and a line of clothing from local designer Rajendra Sahadeosingh modelled by contestants from the Miss World Miss Trinidad and Tobago show, including Sara Jane Waddle.

Ramcharita said it was a gruelling but satisfying production as she had roughly six weeks to pull it together. The segments were filmed over four days at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) over four challenging days, in conformity with covid19 regulations.

For the set, she said they tried to recreate the Red Fort in India, including a cobblestone courtyard where dancers celebrate the return of Lord Rama and other aspects of Divali, TT-style.

“Divali is celebrated differently in different parts of the world where Indians settled, but the core fundamental value of light over darkness is still central. In the Caribbean we concentrate more on the religious side as opposed to the more festive type celebration. Our programme is a fusion of both styles. We have a bit of everything, our local classical, modern film songs infused with our TT culture, plus songs on the pan and violin.”

Ramcharita said part of the reason they are doing this concert is to raise funds via FundmeTT to purchase laptops and tablets for students who need these devices to embrace the new way of learning. With the show now taking on international dimensions she is hoping it will generate more funding so they can help more children than first anticipated.

She said the Ministry of Education will assist in the distribution.