Sugar, spice and everything nice: Mahesvari Autar promoting Indian fusion in Netherlands

By Prerna Grewal

Music is stimulating, music is liberating, music has no boundaries, music has no limits. In short: music has no definition.

If boundaries and cultural diversity segregate people, art has the capacity to ironically employ the same diversity for unification. This quality of fusion within music not only attributes brilliance to its melody but also unites leading composers, singers, musicians and artists situated across borders. The music that's subsequently generated appeals to audiences all over and becomes a common ground for uniting music lovers.

The website DesiYUP.com, founded by Mahesvari Autar, has come up as a brilliant initiative that seeks to provide a platform to upcoming or unrecognized talent; talent that blends distinct flavours of music in a single composition.

The interview section of the website is particularly interesting. It Features interactions with artists like Arijit Singh, Kiran Ahluwalia, Japjit Kaur, Kishan Amin, Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah thereby also covering their band Maatibani. The section offers an insight into their Journey and beliefs and also introduces one to some of their best works.

When asked about the factor that acted as a driving force in coming up with the idea of this website, the founder Mahesvari Autar, in a conversation with Newsgram, elaborated upon various interesting aspects regarding her journey and the birth of the website. Talking about the presence of a strong Indian Diaspora community in Holland, she conveyed how along with western, her interest in Indian music made her travel all the way to UK to seek her kind of music. This served as one of the crucial factors in making her come up with the idea of an international portal that covered and promoted independent artists who created their own music. While the website also covers artists who add their own touch to already existing Bollywood songs, upcoming artists indulging in cross over or Indian fusions are their major focus. She further cited MaatiBaani as an example. Appreciating the brilliance of the band, she commented upon their skill to fuse many aspects of Indian music in one song.

Desi YUP has also organized various concerts in Netherlands that promote cross over or Indian fusion. Some of the prominent ones include "Beyond Bollywood" featuring Arjun and Shweta, "A splendid afternoon" featuring Indian Classical vocalist Nirali Kartik and 'Creation of Something Meaningful' with Shammi Pithia and his band.

Like any other start up, DesiYUP also faced various hurdles. One of the biggest challenges was promoting completely unknown Indian artists in foreign lands; the other finance. Autar started off with her own savings for promotions and concerts and later worked intensively with cultural centers to stabilize financial issues.

Renowned singer Fredie Mercury had once remarked, " We break a lot of rules. Its unheard of to combine Opera with a Rock theme, my Dear". This website works towards tracking down such "rule breakers" and promoting their beats and melodies.