'By women for women'—Singer Nikhita Gandhi curating all-women music festival
What's the story
Bollywood singer Nikhita Gandhi (Raabta, Tere Pyaar Mein) is curating an all-women music festival, Sonic Tigress, which will take place in Bengaluru on March 29.
The festival hopes to have women in all spheres—from performers to technical crew and security.
"Our goal was to make it 100% women, from the technical crew to the security to like everything as in 'by women for women.' We're currently 90% in terms of that," Gandhi told Hindustan Times.
Festival vision
'A very unique niche experience to women...'
About her vision for Sonic Tigress, Gandhi said, "I didn't want to make it like a social thing, because we have enough of those."
"I just wanted to give a very unique niche experience to women where they could just be. Bringing this to reality has been a dream come true."
The festival will not just include musical acts, but also feature acts by female comedians.
Industry challenges
'We really struggled to find a woman sound engineer...'
Gandhi revealed that curating Sonic Tigress has highlighted the lack of female technicians in the industry.
"We really struggled to find a woman sound engineer and women light engineers. They are very male-dominated jobs, and you don't see many women in it."
"We somehow managed to find a female sound engineer, but we're still left to find a female light engineer because that's something that we just have not come across."
Gender representation
'I would love to hear more of that...'
While the Indian music industry has a wide market for female singers, there are still very few female names in other fields, like composing or writing lyrics.
Asked about it, Gandhi said, "I wouldn't say I miss the female energy, because I feel like a lot of men that I work with in the music industry are very inspired by women."
"I would love to hear more of that because it would change the scape in the music industry."