SWARAAG boasts Success … unleashes 2015 Stars!

With well over a 100 participants hailing from Texas, North Carolina, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts grouping a packed talent pool, SwaRaag 2015 Bollywood Competition boasted a standard better than ever before! The glitz brought by the special effects/videos and the glam hosting by Swathi Subramanian, President of SwaRaag set the evening to high expectations. The regular competitive categories Solo Song, Solo Dance and Group Dance held their own with participant ages ranging from 6 to 74 this year. Group Dances enhanced by several choreographers showcased a variety of styles and dance theatrics, with the house roaring loud for each group. The Duo Dance and Spot Choreography categories that were introduced first at SwaRaag in the past years seemed to have brought on a new edge to the competition, where, from the very young 10-12 year olds to the older performers in their 30s seemed to have outdone themselves and completely blown the audience. Ms. Subramanian shared ‘I am thrilled to see how seriously the contestants are taking their performance at SwaRaag and working for months on their choreography/song … it makes all our hard work worthwhile!  The richer strength of the talent pool has brought a new edge to the competition at SwaRaag!’ 

SwaRaag this year stretched into the Poetic arena with its Song Lyrics Category.  Poet/Screenwriter Sunayana Kachroo (writer/creative director of films 'Pashmina', 'Illegal' & ‘In Search of America’ that has won several awards at CANNES, Chicago and other film festivals) presided over this panel and shared her experience and motivated others to present their work at SwaRaag. Ms. Subramanian stated, ‘We were very happy to have Sunayana Kachroo initiate the SwaRaag Song Lyrics category and announce our first winner this year.’

The 600 guests in attendance had a thrilling experience and were treated to several Special Performances: the winners of SwaRaag from previous years came together to set foot to the SwaRaag Signature theme, whereas judge/musician Arjuna Balasuriya soothingly played his Mandolin taking the guests back several decades with his  song ‘Yeh Raatein Yein Mausam’. The evening was underlined by an over the top special PrimeTime Dhamaka performance by Jai Kishan’s Dance Group. This special team arrived from all parts of the country and under Jai Kishan’s dynamic choreography created a highly energetic, captivating, unique performance that left the audience in awe! 

Ms. Subramanian stated, ‘We were humbled by the number of hours Jai Kishan’s Special Dance team put towards giving the SwaRaag audience a rocking time. We can’t thank them enough for flying in from all over the U.S. to make it extra special for us!’

PrimeTime Special Dhamaka Dance Team: Jai Kishan (Choreographer), Nagaraju Cemitathollu, Ayshwarya Raajasekar, Santosh Vijayakumar, Pooja Ravi, Karpahakumar, Bindhu Davuluri, Janani Srinivasan, Hariharasudan 

SwaRaag Signature Special by Past Winners:  Neha Ghalsasi | Namita Dodwadkar | Sheetal Kelkar | Shrvani Balaji | Shikha Bajpai | Jai Kishan | Nagaraju Cemitathollu

Featured Presentation by 2014 Song Winner:  Shailesh Salgar  

Guest Presenters: Ranjani Saigal, Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Bipin Parikh, Hiral Parikh

Choreographers represented at SwaRaag:   Devika Dhawan | Jai Kishan | Jasmine Shah | Deepa Jacob | Neha Parikh | Shikha Bajpai | Shaila Verma | Archana Gorur | Shital Botadra | Sai Kumar & Jagadish | Priyanka & Rameshwari

Swathi Subramanian: Founder/President/Program Host of SwaRaag Performing Arts, Inc. 

Highly Efficient and Rocking SwaRaag TEAM

Vaibhav Dabade | Shobha Shastry | Swetha Subramanian | Rens Methratta | Rekha Palriwala | Mahesh Palriwala | Shikha Bajpai | Hiral Parikh | Kalaimangai Anbalagan | Jai Kishan | Raagini Seth | Rajan Vishwanathan | Sonal Kakkar | Preeti Nagar | Uma Sankar | Asha Manish | Anandini Sekhar | Swathi Subramanian

Presiding over the SwaRaag Panel were honorable Judges:

Final Dance Judges:  

Arsh Mehrotra | Meena Subramanyam | Prafulla Velury | Thenu Rajan

Final Song Judges:   

Shyam Vai | Arjuna Balasuriya | Ramchandra Joshi | Deepti Navaratna

Audition Dance Judges:  Kalaimangai Anbalagan | Swathi Subramanian

Audition Song Judges: Preeti Nagar | Uma Sankar | Hiral Parikh

SWARAAG 2015 WINNERS

SOLO DANCE

1st Place:   Ayachi Sharma

2nd Place:  Twisha Mohapatra

DUO DANCE JUNIORS

1st Place:   Sruthi Ramesh & Kathir Meyappan

2nd Place:  Anushka Phillip & Somin Virmani

DUO DANCE SENIORS

1st Place:   Shrvani Balaji & Kuhu Wadhwa

2nd Place:  Ananya Venkattesan & Preetika Kulkarni

SPOT CHOREOGRAPHY

Winner:   Harihara Sudan & Santosh Vijayakumar

SOLO SONG Age 9 - 16

1st Place:     Juhi Lalwani

2nd Place:   Shreya Madhu

SOLO SONG Age 17 – 35

1st Place:    Niharika Malige

2nd Place:  Ashwini Paranjape

SOLO SONG Age 36&Up

1st Place:   Swarada Kulkarni

2nd Place:  Rakesh Chauhan

SONG LYRICS

Winner:   Kumkum Pareek Malik

GROUP DANCE SENIOR Winning Teams

1st Place:   A Tribute to the 90s | Choreographer – Devika Dhawan | Devika Dhawan Fusion

Group Members: Ritika Singh, Anoosha Barua, Meghna Iyer, Tanya Shrivastava, Arya Anand, Aanya Parmar, Diya Dand, Pooja Tekchandani, Sana Nadkarni, Preksha Munot, Arja Kaushal, Amy Koleth, Sahana Anand, Arpita Sharma, Anika Shroff, Somin Virmani, Anushka Philip, Meghana Edpuganti, Saniya Palia, Shreya Godhani, Aahana Tiku, Isha Mehta

 

2nd Place:  Jai Ho Fusion Mix | Choreographer - Jaikishan | Jai Ho Dance School

Group Members: Meghana Nair, Sanjana Basu, Meghana Paras, Neha Paras, Pooja Hingorany, Krapakshi Sharma, Tishya Marwah, Vrinda Punj, Infanta Anthony

3rd Place:  Indiawale | Choreographer – Sai Kumar & Jagadish

Sai Kumar, Jagadish Kumar, Pravalika, Sri Rama Krishna, Divya Sri, Niharika, Sharat, Krsihna Sai, Pavani, Sneha, Sandeep, Suganya

4th Place:   Apsara Aali | Choreographer - Jasmine Shah | Aangikam Dance Academy

Group Members: Aashna Shah, Nikhar Shah, Anika Talwar, Shikha Pandey, Yamini Kumar, Annika Sriram, Pooja Patel, Shivani Patel, Nikita Patel, Priya Kumari

GROUP DANCE JUNIOR Winning Teams

1st Place:   Aa Ante Amalapuram | Choreographer - Jasmine Shah | Aangikam Dance Academy

Group Members: Ami Patel, Isha Patel, Forum Patel, Juhi Lalwani, Milani Behera, Midhi Patel, Meera Kumar, Arti Jeslani, Devanshi Shah, Tina Tailor, Garima Lalwani, Deep Patel

2nd Place: Nashua Munchkins | Choreographer – Deepa Jacob

Group Members: Hannah Jacob, Hannah Mathew, Ishanvi Sharma, Kirti Das, Mahi Pant, Sanvi Wadhwa, Sanvi Arora, Shreeya Menon, Samya Palawat, Zoha Noufal, Nikhil Shokeen

3rd Place: Haunted Bollywood | Choreographer – Shikha Bajpai | Studio Bollywood

Group Members: Manav Patel, Ankeet Patel, Tej Patel, Ankush Patel, Aryan Patel, Isabel Rana, Aryaman Bajpai, Sophie Rana

Photographers:  KarpahaKumar aka (Pradeep) & Mahesh Kelkar

Pradeep (a.k.a.) KarpahaKumar (KK) is the proprietor of eye5shots that takes pride in capturing the true spirit and personality of the people.  He is involved in every aspect of a photo shoot, making each photograph personal by working on it from pre-production all the way to composing and creative re-touching of the final image. He specializes in Pre/Post wedding, Modeling, Candid, Portfolio, and Event photography … more @ www.eye5shots.com, contact: eye5shots@gmail.com or ph: 616-920-9297