MUMBAI: In 2012, ‘Gajar’ started off with 25 people and seven dhols, currently the band has around 150-200 members and around 60 dhols. The band consist of children as young as ten years to homemakers as old as 49 years old, who are trained to play the dhols for many hours at a stretch.
Rohan along with his friends conceptualised the idea, said, “The type of music we represent has been played in Pune for a while now. This was never played in Mumbai so the Pune bands inspired us to take this idea ahead.”
The band has completed three years on 29 August and has played at many events in Mumbai. “We take one event per day depending on the scale and duration.” The band this year participated for a Pune based dhol competition competing against the group of 30-40 bands and bagged the third prize.
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He added, “The people who are working with us do not get paid. The money we receive through shows is used in maintenance and purchasing new dhols. The spare money is given in charity to mandals or NGOs or to children who are financially poor (children in the band and other children).” The band charges almost around Rs 55,000 in case the event organiser requires all the members of the band. If the request or the budget is low, then the band sends out small group of people to play. “Minimum maintenance of the dhol is Rs 5000,” Rohan revealed.
He stressed that the band members usually play because of their liking to music and not for money, as the members do not earn their living through this.
It was with the help of Govind Mandal that Girgaon based Gajar was able to make the purchase for their first set of dhols. “After our first event took place and we received the payment, we paid back the mandal the amount they spent on us,” Rohan added.
The turning point for the band was with an event called ‘Awaz Girgaon’ and that was done special for them, he stated. “The banners and ads at ‘Awaz Girgaon’ helped us gain the popularity,” he added.
In Girgaon, Gudi Padwa is celebrated with lot of energy and zeal, so they usually make it grand by playing there for more than seven hours at a stretch.
Rohan hopes that someday the band becomes so popular that ‘Gajar’ will play for Ganpati celebration at Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s home.
