Rhythms of India

Now might be the time to say that Indian musicians have arrived with a bang on the global stage. At his Hollywood Bowl concert in Los Angeles last week,AR Rahman performed some of his most popular Bollywood tracks with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra before an audience of 18,000 people,including Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist,Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary. The evening also saw composer and multi-instrumentalist Karsh Kale open for Rahman,along with his newly-formed ensemble,Cinema Live. “I was proud to bring the ensemble to the Bowl on such an occasion as it gave us all the opportunity to show how this music has evolved; the backstage was filled with lots of amazing artists from music,film and dance. It was also nice to get a chance to hang out with Rahman,” says Kale. There was even a surprise performance by Bollywood music composer Salim Merchant,of Salim-Sulaiman duo,who went up on stage during Kale’s performance and did a mash-up of his composition Shukran Allah from Kurbaan with Kale’s Turnpike. Seems like Hollywood is getting an unsurpassed dose of Bollywood music.