MR B Live Entertainment Sets the Sail for The A. R. Rahman Journey
The legendary composer A. R. Rahman performed in Dubai during a concert titled The Journey: Celebrating Music, to rejoice the occasion of completing his 25 years of being in the music industry. The concert took place at the Bollywood Parks Dubai on 26th of January, coinciding with the Indian Republic Day.
The show was Produced by MR B Live Entertainment. The organizers wanted to celebrate the occasion of 25 years of Rahman and with him being an Indian, the organizers strategically chose January 26, 2018, at Bollywood Parks Dubai. The concert was touted as the Largest Republic Day Celebration of Indians outside of India.”
Brothers Incorporated – Ninad Shah & Rahul Tuljapurkar an Indian company making their mark in a global space wanting to create an unmistakable buzz in Dubai – with an event that could launch their company with a bang. We took the idea of celebrating 25 years of Rahman to the promoters and had them on board immediately. Their brief to us was – make this one of the largest celebrations of music that Dubai had ever seen and an experience that fans would never forget. An event that would position this Indian company in the big league of global events.
A. R. Rahman, who was accompanied by a troupe of Bollywood’s biggest voices like Benny Dayal, Haricharan, Armaan Malik, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Harshadeep Kaur and Jonita Gandhi, performed on a 100-Meter-Wide Set. The set for this event was probably one of the largest sets that have ever been built for an Indian Artist. Adding to the grandeur was a 10000sqft LED with cult imagery content which was created for each song performed. World-class audio ensured that the event was a superiorly produced musical extravaganza.
Highlights & Challenges
There were so many highlights & special moments that made ‘The Journey’ an unforgettable experience – not just for us or the artists but also for the fans, “One of the biggest highlights was the Press conference for which we had a 1000-member, all-girls choir from ‘Gems Our Own English High School’, who performed the iconic Vande Mataram song in front of Raj Mahal at Bollywood Parks. The sentiment of pride was clearly palpable and making this moment even more special was a surprise visit by Rahman himself.” a concept initiated by Brothers Incorporated.
Brothers Incorporated very promptly worked on the paperwork, contracts and safety measures “Due to Dubai’s strict protocol for events, to ensure the show could go on smoothly.
Another critical requirement was of forming and maintaining an intensive liaison between the artist managers and the show promoters so that everything would be kept transparent and flowing as planned. This task, which required a considerable amount of management efficiency, was successfully fulfilled by MR B Live.
MR B Live also upheld the Complete Vendor management responsibility, which required a great deal of meticulousness to ensure that every vendor had proper licenses and could deliver for the extensive requirements of every artist’s tech riders.
Bringing diverse vendors together (from India & Dubai) was a bit of a challenge but everyone at MR B Live collaborated together very well. Along with this, managing logistics globally with people coming in from different parts of the world to Dubai required precise planning and minute detailing.
For this, MR B Live deployed multiple teams, each with the specific tasks, to fulfil the overall responsibility of Planning and Scheduling, delivering design, set, schedules and programming.
There were also some unforeseeable challenges like the heavy fog whirling all around during the show, which made it quite difficult to see. But it was the experienced vendors at MR B Live who made all the difference.
With the experienced teams taking on their roles diligently and delivering flawlessly, MR B Live successfully managed the complete operations at the event, from the set-up to the show day.
The success of this Show also relies heavily on coordination, briefing and planning with not only the artiste but also the various musicians from across the country that accompany him. Muhammed Rafiq, AKR Events and Syed Nasser, ARN System worked persistently and systematically and handled the entire coordination.
Mr Balaji Manoharan, Project Director of MR Entertainment Agency commented, “Dream big, work hard – this is the way to success. This concert was only possible because all of us worked towards one common goal and each of us had the belief that we could do it. And we did!”
A Glimpse of Inventories Used During the Journey Tour:
• Main PA Outline GTO from Talentz
• Lighting Designer – Harold, Media Pro
• 7 Delay Stacks of L Acoustics v DAS
• Main Console – Digico HD 7
• Master Console – SD 10
• Monitors - 2 SD 7 (3 Ways Splitter)
• Master System Management – Galileo 616
• Drum Kit – Sonar Drum Kit
• Media Pro – Technical (Sound, Lighting, Roof Trussing, Audio, LED)
• Venue Infrastructure – Al Laith Event Services (Green Room – Cabins, Scaffold, Toilets, Barricading, Black Masking, Stage Platform)
• Power & Electrical – Aggecko