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Band in Focus: The Ganesh Talkies
The punk-rock band with a Bollywood twist that’s taking the indie music scene in Kolkata by storm.
Written by Fahama Sawant
3 min readPublished on
Ganesh Talkies Converse Rubber Tracks
Ganesh Talkies Converse Rubber Tracks© Naman Saraiya
Members: Suyasha Sengupta (vocals/guitarist), Ronodeep Bose (guitarist), Roheet Mukherjee (bassist), Sambit Chatterjee (drummer)
Genre: Alt/Pop/Ska/Bollywood Kitsch/funk/disco
Active from 2011-Present
One fine day in 2011, two young musicians quit the band they were a part of (or got kicked out, as they proclaim) to make music one can dance to and deliver performances in apparel that borders on (and sometimes extends beyond) the theatre couture. They decided to use Bollywood - that big, bad behemoth of things ranging from hyperbolic, over-the-top drama to ridiculously synchronized dance sequences that we all love to hate on – as the central theme. And thus was born The Ganesh Talkies, the indie band from Kolkata who unabashedly assert their love for mainstream Bollywood culture.
The band materialized when vocalist Suyasha Sengupta and bassist Roheet Mukherjee “got fed up” of doing cover music with the band Pseudonym and created The Ganesh Talkies in 2011 to make original compositions. “Being friends and being able to relate to each other to promote a healthy band vibe is extremely important to us”, Roheet declares. “If you are not my friend, you are not in the band.” After as many as thirteen member changes, they were joined by guitarist Ronodeep Bose in 2012 and drummer Sambit Chatterjee in 2014 to form the current line-up.
Flamboyant apparel is as much a part of the band
Flamboyant apparel is as much a part of the band© Chitrangada Chakraborty/Candy’d Box
They are firm believers in the art of performing and giving the live audience their money’s worth. They always appear on stage in elaborate garb which is loud, eye catching and as ‘In Technicolor’ as their recently released album of the same name. They flourish in cliché and their live performances are nothing less of a typical Bollywood song-and-dance sequence. Maintaining that they “will always dress up crazily” for shows, their flair for theatrics is evident from the fact that they wore rented marching band costumes for their first gig.
Pertinently named after an erstwhile cinema theatre in Kolkata, The Ganesh Talkies have been clear about their music right from the start. “We spent our formative years listening to Bappi Lahiri and watching Govinda-Akshay Kumar movies. And then, the Nirvana-Rahiohead phase kicked in, where we are still llingering”, says vocalist Suyasha Sengupta. Instead of choosing to debase the local flavour and move on to ‘cooler’ influences, the alternative rock/punk band choose to embrace both and fuse them to produce something which is boldly original. Catchy beats coupled with groovy vocals, sprinkled with liberal amounts of dance-pop and topped off with a distinct Band Bajaa flavour, is perhaps an apt description of the sound they produce.
The Ganesh Talkies have dared to stride where most indie angels fear to tread. Their blatant espousal of mainstream Bollywood elements in their work has had tongues wagging right when they hit the scene with their first EP Three-tier, No AC. But they have no dearth of supporters, as seen from the release of their first album with producer Miti Adhikari. This ‘Bollywood kitsch’ band is here to stay, in Technicolor.
This article is a part of the Standing By Project archiving the history of Indie Music in India since 1947.
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