ICC Celebrates Republic Day with Engrossing, Virtual Video Production
By Vandana Gadde
HOUSTON: The India Culture Center celebrated India’s 73rd Republic Day event in a spectacular way on January 30th via Zoom, Facebook Live and Youtube Live with over 250 attendees watching the event live across the channels.
ICC President, Jasmeeta Singh, ICC Secretary, Santosh Verma, ICC Director & Event Chair, Pavana Gadde, Event Co-Chair Dr. K.D. Upadhyay, ICC Board of Directors, ICC Board of Trustees and event planning committee had meticulously planned the event to be a high-quality video production, made to be thoroughly entertaining for the Indo American Houstonians.
Renowned Kathak dancer Guru Kumar Sharma and his dance troupe, Kathak Rockers, were specially invited to perform at the event. Sharma is well known for performing in many dance Reality Shows, including the popular ‘Chak Dhoom Dhoom’, ‘Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa’, ‘I Can Do That’, India’s Got Talent, Dance+, India’s Dancing Superstar. He and his dancing troupe have performed in more than 60 national and international shows.
Kumar Sharma and team performed several incredible traditional and fusion dances at the event with breathtaking backdrops and gorgeous outfits. The highlight was Kathak Rockers performing fusion dances for “Despacito” and “Shape of You” which garnered much excitement from the viewers.
Several dignitaries graced the event including the Consul General of India, Houston, Aseem Mahajan; Houston Mayor, Sylvester Turner; Fort Bend County Judge K.P. George; Stafford City Council Member, Alice Chen; Houston City Council Member, District J, Ed Pollard and Stafford City Council member, Ken Mathews.
Talented artists from Houston area dance schools, Infused Performing Arts, Story Tellers School of Dance, Nritya Kalpna team, Kalpna Bora and team, Virtuosi of Performing Arts by Keka Kar, Uma Nagarsheth and dance team performed beautiful patriotic dance performances. It was remarkable to see the excellent dances choregraphed beautifully.
In concluding, the event was enriched by a magnificent show case of New Year celebrations from different parts of India – North, South, East, West – showcasing diverse cultures and traditions from various regions of India. Artists and actors showed the rituals followed during the new year festivals across India wearing traditional outfits from each region. It was a beautiful display of customs and celebrations.
The ICC appreciated the support and generous donations from its sponsors: Malik Jamal from Discount Power; Rajiv Bhavsar, ICC Trustee from Wallis Bank; F. Sabir from FS Group; Gujarati Samaj of Houston; ICC Board of Directors; ICC Board of Trustees and ICC partnering organizations, for making the great even showcase possible.
The ICC celebrated this Republic day in a grand and unique way in a virtual setting. The entire event was prerecorded and played across several online channels to preserve the high quality video production. “Great program, we thoroughly enjoyed it” commented one viewer on Zoom. “Wonderful show executed with complete perfection” another remarked. Overall, the ICC India 73rd India Republic Day event was well received with compliments from viewers across all channels.