A.R Rahman tours the UK, DesiMag catches up with the man behind the Tour!

Vijay Galani.

Desimag.co.uk caught up with Bollywood Film Producer Mr Vijay Galani who told us how the preps are going for the biggest A R Rahman show ever, to be held in the UK.

 

AR Rahman is lined up to set the stage on fire. He has 20 shows all across the globe performing 3 in the UK covering London, Manchester & Birmingham! JAI HO!

Tickets are on sale now so get your bookings in fast. This spectacular show is set to create history for years to come; Vijay has brought the rights for all three shows and is eager to set a trend for plenty more shows in the near future.

He is currently busy planning publicity promotions for the shows and is ecstatic  from the response he has received so far.

DesiMag: How long have you been in the industry for?

Vijay : I have been in the industry for the past 20 years, I started my film in 1991 which with Salman Khan called ‘Suryavanshi’. Then I continued to make films like ‘Achanak’ with Govinda and Manisha then ‘Ajnabi’ I launched Bipasha in this film with Akshay, Bobby & Kareena. I started a film with Bobby, Sunil shetty and launched Priyanka chopra as well, but that film was not completed. I made ‘Hungama’ with Akshay Khanna, I made a small film called ‘Bachke Rehna Re Baba’ which starred Imran Khan & Mallika sherawat in it, which was shot in Mauritius then more recently I picked Veer with Salman Khan.

DesiMag: What was it like to work with Salman after so many years?

Vijay : We have been friends for many years, Its important to wait for the right time in life to approach the right actor who will charge me the right money which in turn will make me money. It’s very important to understand the economical side to a project before signing it; we did discuss it a few times and at the time I felt it was the right time to sign it at a particular price. I felt I would be able to recover my money, so we went ahead and made veer.

DesiMag: What is it like to be back in the UK working on a completely different platform doing A. R Rahmans concerts, how did the whole idea come about?

Vijay : I have experience in organising show I’ve organised 5 very popular shows for Himesh Reshammiya acting as a international promoter which were very successful. I visit the UK very often, having shot my films here I understand the business market out here, so I’m comfortable working here, bringing big artists down from India. A R Rahman is a very big international star now, he’s bigger then the bollywood heroes.

He’s going on a world tour, which consist’s of 20 shows. I brought the rights for three shows all in UK. I know the whole process and I’m aware of what goes in to making a show successful overall. Show business and film making is more or less the same, it works side by side. So my visit here today is to book venues, plan the publicity promotion and work out the sponsorship deal and organise the show.

DesiMag: The first show is in New York, What are we to expect from the show?

Vijay : This is the first time a show like this has been put together for an artist from India the whole team is from LA, this team has worked with well known famous artists such as the king of Pop legendary Michael Jackson, queen of pop Madonna, and Byonce’s Noels shows. Usually when an international show has been organised the show director is usually from India but what A R Rahman has done is he’s hired an International team, this works out better. The scale of the show is very, very big the show is added with back drops the props lighting, sound and a lot of technical support, a bit like watching a Madonna concert, giving you the full works. Rahman as hired the biggest PR agency to promote the show, he’s also hired all the international people to handle this.

DesiMag: What is the expected turn out for this show?

Vijay : You will get to feel a theoretical experience on stage for the first time, the whole show has been put together by a fantastic American company based in LA you will see, dancers, props, live performances & musicians. There are a lot of singers from his own group who you will see performing on stage, like for example the guy who sung ‘Pappo can’t dance sala’ and Adithi. The backdrops, technical sound is absolutely fantastic, incredible lighting includes illumination like never before. AR Rahman isn’t bringing the same old. He’s coming to perform to rock the stage with new upcoming talent hailing from India.

DesiMag: Can you tell us more about the Preparations that have gone in to the show?

Vijay : The organisation and preparation that has gone in to the show is phenomenal. The world tour A.R Rahman had done before consisted of 2 world tours, one was in 2002 the other in 2005-6 all the shows were sold out even though there was only 8-9 shows, 3 in the UK and 6-7 in USA & Canada so at that time all the shows were completely sold out, even though they were very few. But those shows were nothing like how these shows are expected to be.

This time he’s doing around 20 shows around the world 3 in UK again; UK cannot accommodate more than that. I haven’t even started yet and I’m already getting a lot of response from people especially corporate enquiries from people from all different communities, whether that’s Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Tamilians everybody is very keen and has shown great interest, plus we have had a fantastic response from the Western British crowd in UK as well. So this has opened a few more doors and allowed more people to get in contact with Bollywood and myself. This is the first time a show at this level has received a lot of corporative enquiries where we have bulk bookings I the pipe line.

DesiMag: Can you tell us more about what is A R Rahman currently focussing on at present ?

Vijay: He’s now experimenting with new boys and new girls he’s introduced a lot of new talent in singing. He’s not looking to bring down all the popular singers like Sukwinder and many others we have all seen performing in concerts, he looking to incorporate brand new fresh singers, so something to look forward to.

DesiMag: Do you know if he will be using any UK based Singers? (has he trained anyone from UK that might be performing on stage with him)

Vijay : Well we don’t have anything planned as yet, but maybe something I could always put this forward to him.

A R Rahman- Jai Ho.

DesiMag: Can you tell us more about what is A R Rahman currently focussing on at present ?
 

Vijay : He’s now experimenting with new boys and new girls he’s introduced a lot of new talent in singing. He’s not looking to bring down all the popular singers like Sukwinder and many others we have all seen performing in concerts, he looking to incorporate brand new fresh singers, so something to look forward to.

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