Bureau Report
Port Blair, Jan 12: The much awaited Bollywood night of Island Tourism Festival turned into a major disaster yesterday, when Bollywood singer Nakash Aziz refused to perform citing technical reasons. As per Nakash Aziz team the sound system provided for the show was not as per their requirements.
To witness the mega show, which comes one in a year, more than 6000 people reached Netaji Stadium yesterday and the crowd started pouring in since 4.00 PM.
As per schedule the show began nearly at 6.30 pm but till 9.30 pm, Nakash Aziz did not reach the venue and was in his hotel. His technicians however were busy in arguing in rudest possible way and were advising the singer to remain in Hotel. According to the sound engineers of Nakash Aziz the sound system was not up to the mark, however, topmost singers of Bollywood had performed wonderfully in same settings in previous years.
When people started protesting and raising voice, top officials including the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman, Mr. Udit Prakash Rai, the DIGP Mr. Narendra Kumar Bundela and the Secretary Tourism, Mrs. Ankita Mishra Bundela reached behind the stage and only after their intervention the Bollywood singer reached the venue and agreed to perform but till that time half of the crowd had left the venue.
Sadly the Singer sang only three songs and left the stage which left local music lovers heartbroken. There were many who were demanding FIR against the entire team for cheating with them. The Nakash Aziz team however maintained that the faults were of the local event manager.
However, the other artist, comedian Raja Sagoo performed wonderfully and kept the public busy. He not only performed comedy and mimicry but also sang songs and performed dance. Infact on request he performed extra hour to keep public engaged.
When contacted the Secretary of Tourism, Mrs. Ankita Mishra Bundela said that the Department will take action against the event manager as the Department of Tourism had given contract for the show to an event management firm.
“The Department will take action against the Event Manager as the official dealing was only with the event management firm and the event manager did not perform as expected. There was a lot of delay in launching the main artist,” the Secretary said.
