First-ever Bollywood music concert in Sydney will pay tribute to Indian legends

Next Sunday the iconic Verbrugghen Hall in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music will echo not with the music of Tchaikovsky and Mahler but of Indian legends like Madan Mohan RD Burman and JatinLalitThe firstever concert featuring Bollywood music in Sydney is the realisation of a dream shared by two brothers who may been born in Australia but have Bollywood in their veins Sagar and Suraj Nagaraj are second generation Australian immigrants their parents settled in Australia in 1993ldquoIndia never really left us thoughrdquo Sagar 26 tells midday over a video call from Sydney ldquoOur childhood is full of memories of coming home from school to our father whistling tunes of his favourite Hindi songs Plus Bollywood films were always playing on TV Shah Rukh Khan and O Saathi Re from Muqaddar Ka Sikander are a big part of our livesrdquoSuraj NagarajSagar was already a budding violinist by this time having discovered his love for strings in school after which he enrolled into his schoolrsquos music programme One fine day he played O Saathi Re which he had heard his father whistle countless number of times His father was surprised but also loved it and playing Indian music became a regular activity in the Nagaraj householdldquoI fell in love with the violin at the age of four when I heard Sagar play and begged my parents to get me one as wellrdquo says Suraj 20 between spoonfuls of his evening snack He is at home lounging comfortably in a tee while Sagar all suited up is at the Conservatory gearing up for the firstever rehearsal for the concert scheduled for three hours later Both brothers are very obviously excited about the event which they have named Sydney To Mumbai Bollywood Meets Symphony OrchestraThe idea for the concert was born in November last year when during a concert the Nagaraj brothers played select Hindi songs after playing the usual string orchestra favourites These included Dil Ke Jharokhe Mein Kal Ho Na Ho and Humko Hamee Se Chura Lo and were met with thunderous applause Dil Ke Jharoke Mein Shankarrsquos legendary composition from Brahmachari 1968 was particularly well received the brothers tell usThe overwhelming response from the audience which was a mix of Indians and Australians led to the brothers launching their own outfitmdashthe Australian Indian Orchestramdashwhich will perform for the first time on August 13Suraj who has put together the lineup for the concert and is the Artistic Director and Conductor has put all his knowledge about Indian music into the effort He describes the process as ldquoa lot of listening reading writing of notes and playingrdquoldquoI have been to India earlier We keep visiting our native Mysore and I studied a great deal of Carnatic music during my trips which helped a lot in writing the musical notes for the songs I also performed in Kochi as part of the Sydney Youth Orchestra in 2017rdquo he saysSagar who has played with the Australian World Orchestra and is the Concert Master for Sydney To Mumbai adds that the concert will transform all your favourite Hindi numbers through a majestic 60piece symphony orchestraldquoString music has always featured in a big way in Bollywood musicrdquo he says ldquoIn most Hindi songs you can hear a violin or a cellordquoThe only aspect of the concert that the brothers are not willing to talk about though is which songs they will playldquoWersquore purposely keeping it under wraps but I can promise you that it is going to be a trip through timerdquo is all that Suraj is willing to revealThe brothers do share though that the there will be a wide range of songs from singes like Mohammed Rafi Kishore Kumar Lata Mangeshkar Hariharan Shankar Mahadevan Sonu Nigam Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh Apart from four known Indian origin vocalists from Sydney the concert will have a table sitar santour guitar piano and keyboardAs the brothers put it Bollywood music is their ldquohome away from homerdquo They hope that the next Sydney to Mumbai concert will be in Mumbai And frankly so do we