Bengalooru Habbu comes to a close

Bengalooru Habba completed yet another grand finale show on Sunday and the event marked the completion of fourth successful year of the Habba since its inception in 2002.

So we thought it’s right time to catch up with the two women behind this innovative concept, which has come to promise a week-long celebrations for Bangloreans every year.

Nandini Alva and Padmini Ravi, the trustees of Artistes Foundation for the Arts (AFFA) have come to be associated with the Bengalooru Habba (Bangalore Habba earlier). The pride for them however is that the Habba has come to be associated with the city.

“December is the month of festivals world over, and our intention was that people should mark December as the month for Bangalore Habba,” says Padmini Ravi.

So how did AFFA happen and more precisely how did Bangalooru Habba happen? “Our intention in setting up AFFA was to give something back to the society. And being Bharatanatyam dancers ourselves, our primary interest was to regenerate interest in performing arts, which was steadily losing its audience,” says Nandini Alva.

“Padmini and I met not just because we were friends and from common art backgrounds but also because we were destined to do something for the arts,” adds Nandini with a smile.

As for Bangalore Habba, we were looking for a maiden project and realised that we need an event that is glamorous and branded to make it a success. We deliberately hyped the project,” says Padmini Ravi.

But why hype it? “Because we wanted it to be a glamorous as well as a cool event,” says Padmini. They feel that classical music and dance forms need to be repackaged to meet the global audience.

“Classical and performing arts had entered a mediocre mode where the presentation of the event had become mediocre,” says Padmini. The Habba sought to change exactly this and to invite the audience to patronage performing arts.

The first attempt by them was however scoffed at and the Habba was dubbed as an elite festival. They attempted to reach out to all in the subsequent festivals.

“We introduced a huge variety of events from stand-up comedy, classical arts, folk art, magic shows, exhibitions and other events. We also kept the events free so everyone could participate in it,” says Nandini.

Padmini interjects, “This year, to make it even better, we thought that the Habba should go to the people, if they can’t come to it. We targeted the malls, the coffee outlets to get the youth interested in the Habba.”

While they may have hyped it to draw the crowds, they insist that Habba remains a genuine platform for both well-known artistes as well as upcoming artistes. “Upcoming artistes get exposure in such high profile events as they get to interact with senior artistes,” says Padmini

And while they have named it Bengalooru Habba, they are not planning to limit themselves to the city. “We would love to take it to all towns of Karnataka. But that will be a different struggle altogether,” say the duo.

That may be the long term goal, but the short term one is no less ambitious. “We plan to make Bengalooru Habba the biggest international festival in the country by 2010.” And looking at their confidence, there seems little doubt about that.