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Successful IIFA Concert with Bollywood Singer and over 50 performers at Mississauga Celebration Square
(Tuesday, June 28th – Mississauga) Over 8000 people were in attendance this past Friday June 24th at the new state of the art Mississauga Celebration Square venue for its first major production: a special officially-sanctioned IIFA evening concert entitled Bollywood Monster Mash-Up. Presented by the City of Mississauga and produced by FatLabs, this original production featured over 50 singers, dancers and musicians.
“I could not be happier with the success of the Bollywood Monster Mash-Up. By putting on such an ambitious evening concert, we’ve set the stage for the city and the new venue as locations for high quality international productions,” says music composer and producer Vikas Kohli of FatLabs, adding, “Feedback from the over 8000 attendees has been amazing so far and I would remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to thank the province, the city, the crew and the talented performers for supporting me in making this concept into a reality.”
The evening began with an opening ceremony with Mayor Hazel McCallion, Jake Dheer from Rogers Television, MPP Bob Delaney and Susan Burt, Director of the Culture Division for Mississauga. The evening closed with an exclusive performance from Bollywood singer Monali Thakur and her full band who were flown in from India to play her massive film song hits, such as “Zara Zara Touch Me” and “Anjaana Anjaani”. Prior to this the audience was entertained with 80s and 90s Bollywood and rock songs by a 14 member fusion band with a string ensemble, tabla and fronted by Canadian South Asian singer jsin. There was also the 16 member Divine Heritage Artistry dance troupe and 10 member Dhol Circle, making multiple appearances through the night. The show began with 50s and 60s Bollywood mash-ups with French-Canadian electronic artist The Alphabet Backwards performing with South Indian classical violinist Subhadra Vijaykumar and mridangam percussionist Sriram Suryanarayan. And through the night, VJ Daisy integrated various graphics on the fly with live camera feed of the concert to the venues two 15 ft x28 ft media screens.
About Vikas Kohli
Award-winning composer and music producer Vikas Kohli is known for his expertise at fusing together genres as varied as punk, hip-hop and Bollywood pop. Kohli has been profiled on etalk Canada, CBC, CTV, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, The Hindustan Times, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Fox and Zee News. He is the first composer to receive the Trailblazer Award from the ReelWorld Film Festival, the first composer to receive a Voice Achievers Award and also received a MARTY award from the Mississauga Arts Council.
Born in Nepean (Ottawa), Kohli began playing guitar and painting at fine arts school before receiving his Honors Degree in Mathematics & Philosophy from the University of Toronto, his MBA from the Schulich School of Business and his CFA. Kohli now lives in Mississauga, Canada.
