City girl part of Indi-fusion band in Delhi
By Richa Kharshandi
What makes a wedding even more incredible? It is music that adds more colour to the celebration. People usually look for power-packed performances and Tamasha ensures that they dance to its tunes.
The four-member band based in Delhi was formed in 2018 and has already done around hundred gigs at high-end wedding receptions to corporate functions across the country as well as abroad.
One of the members, Sukhmani Kaur Bedi, is a city girl who moved to Delhi a few years ago. The 32-year-old Diva vocalist of Tamasha was born and brought up in Shillong. An alumnus of Pine Mount, Sukhmani has many facets. She was among the top three in the Miss Shillong beauty pageant in 2005. She is a singer and pastry chef. In fact, before Tamasha happened, Sukhmani had a successful bakery business in the north Indian city.
“As a child I used to sing in the local Gurudwara and also auditioned in few singing competitions. But joining Tamasha was not part of my plan,” Sukhmani told Sunday Shillong during a recent visit to the city.
She said it was her husband who prodded her to audition for the band and several months after the audition, she got a call confirming her new role as the ‘Diva’.
The band — whose other members are Manish Ahuja, Anurag Singh and Shail Sharma — mostly performs Punjabi and Hindi songs but it also keeps English songs on the list if clients demand. Tamasha is managed by Richa Raina Ahuja, who is also the co-founder.
“Being in the wedding industry for the last seven years and having planned and executed over a 100 weddings in several countries, there is one demand that I found is constant from every client. Entertainment,” Raina said on phone. She added that regardless of culture, everyone wants the guests to have a gala time dancing and celebrating.
Manish and Sukhmani are the main vocalists with Shail as DJ. Anurag is the choreographer (he also lends his voice when needed) and two other senior artistes, Sultan Masood and Vipin Singh, are in the band. Sunny and Rahul are the dholis.
‘Tamasha’ means entertainment and a power-packed performance. “We not only perform music but also amuse people by creating an act, which is why the name Tamasha is a perfect title for our band,” said Manish.
The Facebook page of the band already has 8,000 followers. Clients usually contact the band through wedding planners or on social media.
“Tamasha came into being when couple Manish and Richa, who are wedding planners, were getting numerous requests for music drill,” informed Sukhmani.
“The Good Old Timeline on the Day of the event was ceremonies, family performances followed by a Sufi/rock/celebrity band or a renowned DJ. This needed a little tweak, a little change in the game perhaps. And suddenly one fine day I sat down with my co-founder (Manish) to brainstorm ideas. That’s when this concept of a unique composition of artistes was born where from the word go they would just take the audience and the merriment to the next level,” Raina said.
The duo started meeting artistes and shortlisting names to create the best possible mix of talents.
“Soon we got an opportunity. At one of the weddings that we were planning, the band that was supposed to perform was cancelled due to date problem. And we were ready with this new band. The rest as they say is history,” the band manager added.
In a short period of time, the band has gained much popularity and it is on the move almost all the time doing as many as nine gigs in a month. “It does get exhausting but in this industry we get so much of respect and people look up to us as celebrities. This actually keeps us going,” Sukhmani said, the excitement palpable in her voice.
Talking about Tamasha and its future, a confident Raina said, “It is like a rock solid family now. It could not have had a better set of people. We are aiming to reach 100 shows by the end of 2019.”
(Photo courtesy: Facebook)