The Circle of Life: NAACH Performs with Richa Sharma at AAOHA

HOUSTON: The Asian American Hotel Owner’s Association (AAHOA) with about 11,000 members, is the voice of the owners of the hospitality industry in North America. Founded in 1989, AAHOA members own more than 20,000 motels employing about 578,000 people across the country. The AAHOA organizes a wide variety of events throughout the year, the annual conference being the biggest of all. This year, it was Houston’s turn to host the 2013 Annual AAHOA Conference at the George R Brown Convention center from March 25to 29.

As a finale to commemorate this AAOHA gathering on a high note, on March 29, India’s well known playback singer, Richa Sharma took stage to entertain the attendees. She was accompanied by Kamal Khan, the winner of Zee TV’s SaReGa MaPa Singing Superstars show .

Life comes a full circle and some of us are lucky enough to witness it. 

In 1999, Richa had her first major hit as a playback singer in Subhash Ghai’s ‘Taal’. In 1999, Mahesh Mahbubani, Artistic Director of Naach Houston acted in  his first major Bollywood movie, in fact for the same song. Richa Sharma sang “Ni Main Samajh gayee” and Aishwarya Rai and Mahesh Mahbubani shared the silver screen, dancing  together  to it. The result was a memorable song for a super hit movie.

On March 29, at the AAHOA convention Richa Sharma enchanted a massive audience in Houston with her voice as Mahesh Mahbubani and the Naach Houston Professional Dance  Team  performed with her on stage.  The result was a memorable evening for a great audience. The circle of life brought these talented artists together.

Richa Sharma sang some of her most famous Bollywood songs including “Sajda” from the movie “My Name is Khan”; “Zindagi Mein Koi Phir Aaye rabba” from the movie Musafir as well as  “Maahi Vey” from Kaante amongst others.  Incidentally, “Mahi Vey”, won Richa her first major award as best female singer in 2003 while ‘Sajda’ got her the coveted Zee Cine Award best female singer in 2011.

Dressed in almost angelic whites, Naach members performed Bollywood Contemporary dances for these songs, while Mahesh Mahbubani himself performed a Sufi style solo composition with Richa.

Midway through the concert, Richa and Kamal got the audience off their feet by starting off a fast paced medley of songs. More and more AAHOA members got to the front of the stage showing off Bhangra and Garba moves as well as Bollywood steps inspired by Naach Houston dancers.

It was a memorable evening for the AAHOA members, Richa Sharma and her group as well as the young members of Naach dance team who added motion as a dimension to this event. An evening like this infused with soulful songs and breathtaking dance moves will be remembered for a long time to come just like the song from Taal that first got Richa and Mahesh together. The circle had been completed.

For More information about Naach Houston, visit www.naachhouston.com