Just a little after 6.30pm on a chilly Christmas eve evening, Arijit Singh strode on to the stage at Eco Park, a guitar slung across his shoulders. It’s the first stop on his 10-city tour and the Murshidabad man launched into Hawayein, the soulful number from Jab Harry Met Sejal.
Over the next three hours, Bollywood’s golden voice of the moment enthralled the 16,000-strong crowd at Royal Stag Mega Music Arijit Singh Live In Concert — The MTV India Tour, produced by Wizcraft, with some of his biggest hits and a few popular Bengali songs like Prithibi, Ei raat tomar aamar and Bhindeshi tara.
t2 picks the best moments...
Piano man: Taking a break from strumming his guitar, Arijit sat by the piano to sing the soulful Kapoor & Sons number Bolna, even as the crowd — especially girls — let out a loud roar. A few songs later, the man walked up to the edge of the stage, pumping up his fans by beating on a talking drum.
HELLO: Talking to the crowd in Bengali, urging them to put away their phones and enjoy the music, bending down at the edge of the ramp to shake hands with some (above)... Arijit made it a point to interact with his fans in between his singing. And midway through singing Janam janam from Dilwale, he let go of his guitar for a few seconds to wave back at them.
DUET WITH THE FANS: Arijit got thousands in the crowd singing along from the start — Hawayein to Gerua to Soch na sake. Raabta and Bulleya were the pop picks, with Arijit turning his mic towards his fans to sing along. And of course they did!
HAVING A BALL: The screaming fans had a ball — quite literally — when a bunch of colourful giant balls were let loose on stage, while Arijit sang the Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani chartbuster Ilahi, a little before the curtains came down. A perfect Insta-worthy moment!
CURTAIN CALL: The evening drew to an end with Arijit bringing the house down with a medley of Kabira and Channa mereya, amid bursts of white confetti. “Thank you, Calcutta… you have been a wonderful audience,” he said, as the crowd cried out for an encore. With the lights on stage dimming, fans started filing out but a familiar voice singing Phir le aya dil stopped them in their tracks. Guitar in hand, Arijit was back for a swansong, crowning the night with the Barfi! number. His final sign-off? He bent down to kiss the stage, did a nomoshkar to the crowd and then blew kisses at them.
a t2 contest winner.
It was the perfect Christmas Eve party for Calcutta. It was lovely to see the audience singing along... it turned out to be one big karaoke party. Despite the city’s club culture, despite other artistes performing that evening, it was heartening to see Calcutta turn up in full force. We kicked off the 10-city tour with Calcutta and it’s set the tone for the rest of the tour
— Sabbas Joseph, director and co-founder, Wizcraft International
The event was the culmination of planning for over a month. The feedback is very encouraging and worth the effort and sleepless nights put in by the entire team. We are very happy that this 10-city tour kicked off from Calcutta
— Rishabh Bapna, Cherry Tree
(the local event partner for the concert)
Text: Priyanka Roy and Pramita Ghosh
Pictures: B. Halder
The Arijit Singh song I would like to dedicate to my significant other is...Tell t2@abp.in
