Seychelles-India Day 2017 - Gala night livens up Victoria |09 October 2017

Music and dances from renowned artists, musicians and dancers from India livened up Victoria on Saturday evening during a gala night that formed part of this year’s Seychelles-India Day celebrations.

A large crowd of spectators of mainly Indian nationals, both from the Indian community living in Seychelles and visiting ones, danced, clapped and sang to those rhythmic beats and vibes coming from the stage.

Guests who graced the evening with their presence included Vice-President Vincent Meriton; the Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture Mitcy Larue, whose ministry has partnered with the Indian Association of Seychelles and the Indian high commission in Seychelles in organising the event; and members of the Seychelles-India Day organising committee notably its chairman Ramu Pillay.

The star of the evening was Neha Bhasin, an Indian professional singer known for her works in Indian pop, and Bollywood. Apart from Hindi, she has recorded songs in many Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi and Marathi. Neha started her career in 2002 as a member of the very successful Indian pop group Vivs. VIVA was the first all-girls band group of India chosen by Channel [V] as part of reality show Coke (V) Popstars.

One other prominent presence in the gala was Sathish Krishnan, a lead dance choreographer. Sathish trained and grew as a lead dancer and has been an instructor of Flyerz dance company for more than a decade now, before gradually stepping up to feature as a dancer in television shows such as Dance Machi Dance and Aattam Paatam in Kalaignar TV. He was subsequently seen as the dance choreographer in following seasons of Jodi No 1 and in Ungalil Yar Adutha Prabhu Deva.

Another group which provided the audience with very rhythmic, choreographed dance performances was the Thaikkudam Bridge music band. The band is based in Kerala and was founded and formed in 2013. It first became famous through the musical show Music Mojo, which is telecast on Kappa TV and their own composition "Fish Rock", which became popular through social networking sites and YouTube.

The fifth Seychelles-India Day ended yesterday with a lunch at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay. Next year’s celebrations have been set for July 28-30.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the gala night.