Mood Indigo (festival)

Concerts or "Pronites" feature national and international artists from various fields of music, like Rock, Sufi, Classical and Bollywood. Mood Indigo Pronites have staged international bands like Epica, the Neal Morse band featuring Mike Portnoy[10] in 2013, Simple Plan[11] in 2012, Karnivool[12] in 2011, Katatonia[13] in 2010, Porcupine Tree[14] in 2009 and Ensiferumin 2008. Mood Indigo also played host to its first EDM concert with DJ Lange performing in 2013. This was followed by a concert featuring Sander van Doorn in 2014 and Borgeous in Mood Indigo 2015. Ummet Ozcan(DJ MAG 23) performed in the EDM Nite on Day 1 of Mood Indigo 2018.

Pronites at Mood Indigo

Pronites has also hosted Asha Bhosle[15] (once with music director R D Burman in 1981 and again in 2010), Jagjit Singh, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Amit Trivedi, Kailash Kher, Salim–Sulaiman, Mohit Chauhan, Vishal–Shekhar, Pritam, Adnan Sami, Raghu Dixit, KK, Lucky Ali, Amit Kumar, Kavita Seth, Pankaj Udhas, Raghav Sachar, Agnee- the band and Javed Ali. Classical artists like Pt.Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt.Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Vikku Vinayakram, Pt. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, sitar maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Manna Dey and Taufiq Qureshi have performed here as well.

Fusion artists including Louis Banks, Niladri Kumar, Sivamani and Alms for Shanti[16] have performed in the past at Mood Indigo. Pronites also organizes Livewire,[17] a rock band competition[18] and has been a launchpad for bands Parikrama, Zero, Vayu. Headliner events in the past have included Motherjane, Indus Creed and Sceptre. In 2012 over 200 bands from across the country participated in the competition, with preliminary rounds being held in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.

Mood Indigo has also hosted a number of Indian rock and fusion bands like Indus Creed,[19] Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Motherjane, Parikrama, Thermal and a Quarter, Sceptre, Antaragni and Zero, and international bands like Canadian band Q.E.D.

Khalsa college in finals of third bell - the theatre competition at Mood Indigo

Competitions at Mood Indigo have been the stage for college contingents from across the country. Competitions cover all the genres of art - Dramatics, Lifestyle, Literary arts, Speaking arts Fine arts, Visual arts, Film & Media, Music, Dance and journalism.

These competitions have had personalities associated with them over the years. Finalists of the dance competition 'Dancing with the Stars' performed for an audience of 3500 and were judged by Shahid Kapoor[20] and Rajiv Surty. The finalists of the music event 'Singing with the Stars' were judged by singers Kavita Seth, Meiyang Chang and Shibani Kashyap. Over 50 bands perform in Mantra, the Hindi band competition, for an audience of over 8000. The Western acoustic band competition sees the participation of over 50 bands from all over India. Aagaaz the street play competition, in its third edition, in Mood Indigo 2012, gave the winners getting a chance to perform at the National Center for Performing Arts.[21]

The performing arts competition (One Act) called 'Third Bell' has had judges including Anupam Kher, Himani Shivpuri, Shobha Khote, Amit Behl, Piyush Mishra and Lalit Parimoo. It consists of events like Situational acting, Narrative Mime, Stand-Up comedy and Short Skit. The winners of this competition are also given a chance to perform at the National Center of Performing Arts. Its stage has played host to Amjad Khan and Mani Ratnam. Speaking events include Jam and Extempore, for informal speaking and National Debate for formal debates. Omniscience, the quizzing competition of the festival has quizzing events based on Entertainment, General Awareness, Business and Sports. In 2012, Omniscience had preliminary rounds in Kolkata, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai. Fine arts and Creatives include events and workshops such as 3-D surfacing, soap carving, vegetable carving, sponge modelling, painting on a canvas, book cover designing, Rangoli art, wax carving and charcoal drawing etc. In 2012, the filmmaking event, 'Director's cut' saw the director of the top two entries being given a chance to produce a short film each with Bejoy Nambiar along with best 2 actors of the top two movies with a professional crew. In 2013, the winners of the SGTL event received a direct entry into the Femina Miss India eliminations and won a photo shoot with Dabboo Ratnani. In 2010, a book cover design competition was organized in association with author Anita Nair. In 2015, the Hindi Poetry event was judged by Swanand Kirkire and MI Idol, the singing competition was judged by Papon. Each year Mood indigo hosts competition phase in different colleges. List of colleges in which mood indigo for competition was held (1973-2017) :- •IIT Bombay - From 1973 to 2006 •IIT Delhi - 2007 •IIT Kharagpur - 2008 •NIT Trichy - 2009 •BITS Pilani - 2010 •NIFT Delhi - 2011 •IIT Roorkee - 2012 •BITS Hydrabad - 2013 •VIT Vellore - 2014 •IIT Bombay - Again from 2015 to 2017

Horizons debuted in 1989, as a set of workshops and lectures on the Arts, as an experiment. Its success has made it a permanent fixture on the calendar.

In 2012, Mood Indigo hosted more than 150 foreign artists from all over the world. It includes Canadian comedian Michel Lauzière,[22] Irish sword swallower Murray Molloy,[23] American fire artist Jason Divad,[24] Monsieur Gusto, The Chancy Brothers, Wacky Chad and others.

Mood Indigo has featured many international artists.

The International Music Festival,[25] started in 2009, has brought to MI performers like the French group Moriarty, Fire On Dawson from Germany, Norwegian band Indian Core,[26] Tarq Bowen from UK, Swedish performer Meja[27] and the Glass Duo from Poland. Mood Indigo 2011 saw bands like Akasha from Malaysia and Caladh Nua from Ireland perform while the other shows included a performance by Gamblerz crew from South Korea and Jean Francois from Las Vegas. Vogue, the fashion competition has also been associated with prestigious names like Wendell Rodricks, Neeta Lulla, Marc Robinson, Kulraj Randhawa. 2010 also saw sumo wrestling[28][29] at Mood Indigo.

Other shows include the Korean break dance troupe B-boyz,[30] circus performance by Europe's Nofit State Circus, Tararam[31] Israeli trash band that performed at the Athens Olympics, Adam Winrich the whip-cracker, Sabri brothers[32] other renowned artists. Horizons has also hosted Victor Rubilar, street magician Chris Korn,[33] Cile the one-man-band, magic show by P C Sorcar, Sudarshan Patnaik's sand sculptures, Hasya Kavi Sammelan, puppetry show, synchronized swimming and diving,[34] and Film Fest.

It also includes exhibitions of gramophones, photographs, famous newspaper archives and others. In 2010 an exhibition cum stunt show of the Harley Davidson bikes was organized. Workshops conducted range from theater, jazz, waltz, salsa, belly dancing, star gazing, kickboxing, lasso twirling, photography, latte art to eating with chopsticks.

Fringe events by artists from various countries such as Israel, Canada, Korea, United States are also part of the festival. These include drum circle, circus performers, jugglers, mime artists. The 2015 edition also included performances from the critically acclaimed Manganiyar Classroom, and Grammy winning musician Dhruba Ghosh.

Mood Indigo Worldfest 2012

The LitFest is an event where speakers hold panel discussions and interact with students. It has played host to panelists and speakers like Smriti Irani, Kiran Bedi, Prakash Jha, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shankar Mahadevan, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Pachauri, Ramachandra Guha, Rohit Shetty. The 2013 edition of Illuminati featured talks by Aamir Khan, LinkedIn CEO Nishant Rao, S. Hussain Zaidi, Mir Ranjan Negi. In 2014, it featured talks by Amish Tripathi, Rajdeep Sardesai and Subramanian Swamy. In 2015, LitFest hosted Shashi Tharoor and Markandey Katju. 'Bollywood Panel' had directors from the Indian film industry like Ramesh Sippy, Anurag Kashyap and Rajkumar Hirani. "Eloquence", an event in LitFest saw an interview session of Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of the state of Maharashtra by journalist Arnab Goswami. 2017 featured P.Chidambaram, Anurag Kashyap, Manoj Bajpayee and other speakers.

Worldfest is an initiative to bring together folk dance troupes from the world. International groups visiting Worldfest conduct workshops to facilitate cultural exchange, participate in sightseeing tours, parties and journeys to various points in the host city of Mumbai. Worldfest 2011 brought together groups from Spain, Turkey, Poland and Indonesia to perform on a single platform to showcase their country's rich cultural heritage. In 2012, Italy, Japan, Romania, Serbia and Sri Lanka exhibited their culture and food. Representatives from these countries also participated in the Carnival.[35]

Humourfest is an initiative to encourage the phenomenal growth of stand-comedy in India and abroad. It has played host to comedians like Sorabh pant, Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Mallika Dua, Biswa Kalyan rath, Sumaira Sheikh and Nishant Talwar. In 2018, Performers included Abhishek Upmanyu, Kunal Kamra, Kunal Chauhan and RJ Naved

Informals refer to unconventional and spontaneous events. A major part of Informals is the Adventure Zone. It includes activities such as Zorbing, Paintball, Quad Biking, Hot air ballooning, Water Games, Laser Tag, Sumo Suit Wrestling etc. Other events organised include Baraat Dance, Street Races and Treasure Hunt. Games such as Snooker Pool Table and Board Games as well as Crime Scene Investigation, Role Playing Games are organized. In 2013, Dragon Boat Racing, a maritime event, was held at Marine Drive. "GRIND", a music event conducted saw the performance of Romanian pop act Akcent. 'She's Got The Look', the beauty pageant is also organized. A 4 km cross-country race and a 3x3 Basketball game are among other events.

The jury for personality hunts like "Mood Indigo’s Most Wackiest" and "Am I Talented?" has featured Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Pallavi Joshi, Sandeepa Dhar, Tanisha, RJ Mallishka. Film actors Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma, playback singer and actress Monali Thakur were present at the "Mr. & Ms. Mood Indigo" in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Ayushmann Khurrana was a part of the jury for "Mr & Ms. Mood Indigo 2014".

The campaign was planned to raise awareness about blindness and sensitization of people towards the blind, as well as encouraging accessibility.

A nationwide stem cell donation drive was taken up the volunteers of Mood Indigo to increase the donor registry for combating diseases like Cancer. The marathon organised in the campus to raise awareness about the cause saw a magnificent turn out.

To remove the taboo attached to breast cancer, the students joined hands to break myths regarding the disease, to make the nation aware through interactive social campaigns.

Platelet do it! - was one of the most successful nationwide awareness campaigns under which a total of 30,000 students volunteered to register as platelet donors from over 1900 colleges across the nation.

Students sporting their support for the cause.

To spread awareness about thalassemia, a social cause campaign was launched in Mood Indigo 2012. Thalassemia testing camps were set up in various locations and colleges, and about 1400 people were tested .[36] Report 1Report 2

Tying up with the Make A Difference NGO, the Mood Indigo core committee launched Sparsh for betterment of underprivileged children through campaigns and awareness drives. The organizers went to slums and interacted with slum children, understanding and trying to solve their problems.

Aagaaz, Street Plays at Mood Indigo 2010

Aagaaz ("The beginning") was a countrywide social awareness campaign through street plays. The campaign aimed on raising awareness on issues like oppressed child workers, status of women in the society and corruption.

Khoon Chala was the Mood Indigo blood donation drive,[37] started in 2008.[38] ' To also spread the awareness about blood donation, street plays were organised, and short films were screened in 30 colleges and 7 cineplexes respectively.[39] In the two editions of MI when the donation drive was held, more than 2500 units of blood were collected.[40]