In India, where there are few opportunities for singer/songwriters and bands to perform live outside the six-month-long festival season, Sofar curators play an important role in giving the country’s independent music talent a stage. Consequently, they’ve helped convert thousands of listeners into fans. Responsible for every aspect of what attendees experience, they’re the unsung heroes behind the shows. Here, we turn the spotlight on a few of our most dynamic curators in India.
Ankit Dayal, Sofar Bombay
A vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and backing musician, Ankit is among the growing group of curators to have done a number of Sofar shows before they started organising them. Ankit, who’s been co-leading the Bombay chapter since October 2019, had performed as part of bands helmed by Sid Vashi and Dhruv Visvanath and with his own group Spud In The Box in 2017 and 2018.
He’d been a volunteer even before he played a show, and offering to help with the sound set-up for Damien Rice’s set enabled him to attend that now-legendary gig in February 2019. “I found one spot to squeeze into and did not budge the entire night,” he said. “It was absolutely amazing.”
From the concerts he’s put together, the one at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum, in January 2020, is particularly memorable. “It felt very iconic,” said Ankit whose last Sofar appearance as an artist was in Goa in August 2022 for the launch tour of his debut solo album Tropical Snowglobe (Side A).
Gaurav Israni, Sofar Bangalore
Gaurav is one of the handful of Sofar curators in India who isn’t connected with either the entertainment or events industry, but music has always had a big role in the management consultant’s life. He formed a band with friends back in his hometown, Jabalpur, and had been to plenty of concerts.
At those gigs, however, “people were talking and having fun but not completely into the music,” he said. Going for a Sofar session in Bengaluru was a revelation. “It was my first experience attending a very intimate show. I really loved the vibe.” Gaurav started volunteering with the local chapter in 2017 and became the co-city lead in 2020.
His favourite part of the role has been the chance to interact with musicians he has long admired. “The chance to meet them, talk to them, and understand their ideology is the highlight,” he said.
Manaf, Sofar Kochi
Five years ago, Kochi resident Manaf, who was working in the information technology sector at the time, started holding concerts in the evenings and on the weekends. “I wanted to listen to artists I liked,” he said. “It kind of took over my life so I started [doing] it full-time.”
In Kochi’s somewhat small but growing music scene, Manaf’s reputation as one of its most prominent gig organisers made him an ideal candidate to revive the Sofar chapter there in 2022. For him, joining the team has a larger purpose. “Having a music ecosystem like Sofar in the city could actually make a huge difference because of the quality of the artists [who perform],” Manaf said. “If some good videos manage to come out of Kochi and on to the global Sofar platform, that could put [us] on the map.”
Nupura Hautamaki, Sofar Goa
As a regular Sofar attendee in cities where she’d lived such as London, Dubai, and Helsinki, Nupura was surprised to find that there wasn’t a chapter in Goa when she moved there six years ago. A marketing and events professional, she decided to take up the mantle. “I hadn’t [yet] set up my business, so had spare time and would be occupied in a positive way,” said Nupura, who’s been curating the gigs for Goa since Sofar launched there in 2017.
This makes her one of the longest-serving leads in India. Her favourite part of being one of Sofar’s curators in India is the feedback from acts who are unaware of the format until they’re invited to perform. “When they do a show, they’re actually getting an audience that’s sitting and listening and engaging with them,” Nupura said. “That’s what still drives me, that the focus is on the artist.”
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Words by Amit Gurbaxani
