Interview with Vaishali Aks Viva from Vaishali Viva Global Events

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Interview with Vaishali Aks Viva from Vaishali Viva Global Events

UTSA Coda Podcast

Martin Urrutia  ​ [00:00:00] ​ So here with me I have Vaishali. Can we call you Sally? Sally ​ [00:00:03] ​ Sure. Martin ​ [00:00:04] ​ Awesome. Sally is the founder of AKC entertainment as well as Beaver global events. She'll be sharing her experiences as a music promoter for Indian artists, her knowledge of the Indian music industry, and her business operations for her music and entertainment companies. So without further ado Sally. Just give a brief intro for AKS. What that's about. Sally ​ [00:00:26] ​ Well first of all Martin thank you for having me here. AKS, the name itself. It's aks, and its meaning is reflection. So while we were wanting to start this company, I wanted to give it a meaningful name. It kind of transpired into what is AKS? A reflection a reflection of what? A reflection of stars,a reflection of singers, dancers, performers, artists. Hence the name AKS, Music and Entertainment dedicated to the performers in the industry. Since I was a little girl just like every other little girl was drawn into the glamour world of Bollywood. I loved singing. I loved dancing. I loved performing. But over a period of time when you're growing different priorities and responsibilities takes you away from your true passion so because after 30 years after a decade of fulfilling my responsibilities I am back and I wanted to come back to my basic core passion and with the help of a friend who also shared the same passion we decided to go head on into this industry and started this company AKS music and entertainment four or five years ago. Martin ​ [00:02:12] ​ How do you mainly get your artist or how do you get these artists that you then promote? Sally ​ [00:02:16] ​ Basically what happens is you've got the international promoters and then you have the national promoters and then the local promoters such as myself. So the international promoters are the ones who are sitting in the Bollywood industry in India in Mumbai and they have connection either directly with the Stars, they have relatives who have connections with the stars, or they have connections with the manager of the star or they have no connection, but they want to be connected and they find venues and avenues to get connected with the stars. They are the ones who prepare the agenda and the timings and the months as to when a certain star is the available, who else could join with them, and the pricing for them is all decided by the International promoters and then they bring it to the national promoters and the National promoters in turn call up on us local promoters as to who all would be interested in doing this particular artist at this pricing in your city and so depending on the demographics of our city we would know that whether we would be able to promote this particular show here in San Antonio or Chicago or New York or Houston. Martin ​ [00:03:45] ​ Do the promoters the national promoters also set up the venues or do you mainly kind of look at the venue spaces for these artists to play and sing? Sally ​ [00:03:56] ​ The job of the National promoters is to make sure that they apply for the visa for the artist. So that's a performance Visa. That's a P1 and they have to pay for the transportation from any country to U.S. or, for instance, over here from India to us and they have lined up the cities so wherever the first performance is that's where they land the first and and then on all the expenses of the show and all the expenses of the artist becomes the local promoters expenses. So their travel and their accommodations and their lodging and their food becomes the local promoters expenses. Martin ​ [00:04:51] ​ How much fun is it working with these artists who were from India and I don't know if it would be their first time in the states or like so far. How fun is that? Sally ​ [00:05:16] ​ It is fun. It is. It's definitely fun, it's definitely exciting and it's thrilling that you're finally going to meet some of these artists from when you were growing up. You know they're still there. They're still there in the industry. And you know some of them I perhaps had a little bit crush on. And so then that was very exciting to be able to you know meet them and come face to face with them. And you know the social media has changed the the imaging of everything. They've taken the glamorous world to the next level and they've taken it to your friends your family your relatives. So it's not only exciting to just meet with them but also exciting to take selfies with them and take pictures with them and blasting it on the social media. So all aspects of meeting the artist and greeting with them and getting to know them is fun, fun, and fun but of course we all know there always is an underlying concerns and issues that comes with with the artist or the promoters themselves. So on a scale of one to 10 I would say excitement and fun is 10, but at the same token it is difficult. It is quite challenging I would say sometimes to manage the artist and their team and trying to manage the timings as they are travelling from one city to the other. You know especially when you have a Saturday event and they just finished an event on Friday in San Jose and now they are coming to Houston. Then you need to have the venue and everything ready for them. But as soon as they land, you also need to take them to their hotel. So it's always balancing you know balancing and juggling the time and their moods because they're tired from a long performance the night before and they're travelling at the same time. So you do need to manage between and be sensitive to their needs as well. So we the local promoters you know we definitely bend over backwards to be sensitive to their needs and many many many times we find that the artists themselves are also you know pretty good and they understand the harshness and things that we have to deal with as well. Because for instance the first show starts at 9:00 at night and these people, they come in at 1 o'clock then we need to feed them, we need to take them to their hotels, give them their time to take a power nap and then of course we need to get them up again and take them to the auditorium for the rehearsals. So while by the time they're taking a two to three hour nap it's our responsibility to take the the remainder of the team members who are the lyricist or who are the sound technicians and who have the equipment that they're going to be playing the musical instruments that they're going to be playing. So all these things needs to be hooked up to the venue and once that is done we have to bring the artist in to do the rehearsals and then of course take them back again and get them looking all pretty and settled in and fed and all that and then bring them back again. Sometimes navigating through the traffic when you're doing this. Martin ​ [00:09:25] ​ I feel like all of that is just a fraction of all the things you could possibly say about that as well. There was a whole like novel on this stuff that-. Sally ​ [00:09:35] ​ Definitely. Martin ​ [00:09:35] ​ On page two. You know. That's insane. As the artist, whether it be a day out a week out or a month out from them performing on the day at the venue, how do you reach out to the local Indian market and kind of like bring awareness to these upcoming artists. Is it through some Facebook page? Is it through both Facebook page- or is it a  social media and relatives and any any advertising through like terrestrial radio or anything like that? Sally ​ [00:10:03] ​ Definitely a very good question. We use everything we can use all of the above. Some cities may have a radio through which you can reach out and radio, you know believe it or not, still is very widely and instrumental in the sales of the tickets because you can reach the masses when you're calling a particular artist and you want to promote them to the maximum. It helps if he's a singer then it helps while you are advertising that you know such and such artists is coming on this date and you you're trying to sell the tickets. It also helps when you are playing their songs. It also helps when you go to the radio and you say OK I'm going to play a 30 second music you know the first 10 people who can tell us what song and what artist it is we'll get 20 percent discount on a ticket. So it's widely used for promotional purposes. ​ [00:11:05] ​ Quick question is that specific method of like how you're saying you play a 30 second sample- has that been done before? ​ [00:11:14] ​ Yes. We've done that in Houston.In Houston, in Dallas. I know definitely these two cities we've done that. I know they do that in Washington as well. We definitely have done this in Houston and we get an enormous amount of responses. Wow. Because it doesn't matter how rich or poor you are. Everybody likes to get a little freebie. And then the fun thing that comes to it you know is you're playing these clips. If the artist has been around for three decades and for decades and when you're playing these clips people of different age groups can also relate to it, you know, when they hear the songs on the radio it takes them back to when they were child. You know, they're childhood memories and these are the people that you also want to tap into depending on the artist you are bringing. So the age group tapping into the specific age groups helps when you have a radio. Martin ​ [00:12:18] ​ I guess as I found it so fascinating because I never never hear them do like 30 second samples of a new song from what Taylor Swift "oh she's dropping a new song 30 here's a 30 second," I never heard of that. So last question on that point was so would you think that's mainly specific to like the more Indian stations that were more friendly towards that idea. ​ [00:12:46] ​ Yeah. I mean we definitely we are using the radio stations you know to go out and entertain. Radio stations are still a mode of entertainment especially when given to Houston and Dallas traffic and you're driving home and you're just sitting in your car and you can plug in and you know just turn on the radio. You're not only listening to just the songs you're also having conversations with them because you can also hear your own language that you grew up with you know. So yes definitely radio stations are one of the means of advertising. We also use Facebook and Instagram and all this quite a bit. We also put sometimes what we have played on the radio. It's interesting because we gave radio a whole new dimension by taking a clip of what's actually live happening at the radio station a 30 second one minute clip and posting it on Facebook so people are now able to see radio on Facebook. You've taken live radio onto Facebook and now people come on to Facebook and then they in turn are able to also participate in these radio related activities through Facebook. And that helps us also sell the tickets. Martin ​ [00:14:12] ​ It's like double exposure. Sally ​ [00:14:14] ​ Yeah. It's kind of funny because we have kind of used radio where when we get the actual artist to land in our city we also find a way to bring them to the radio station and we conduct live interviews with them and we allow the public also to be a part of it. It becomes an interaction between the public and the artist so that we also we are promoting. And that helps us sell any last minute tickets that were not sold because now the public is just getting into the artist and the artist is himself also thinking as we are interviewing he's also singing a couple of their favorite lines. So where we hundred percent of our shows are a hundred percent sold out thanks to the radio and Facebook. Martin ​ [00:15:03] ​ That is insane. I'm sure that other there's other elements but just how are you able to name off those two major things to say "100%" without having to list 10 more items. Sally ​ [00:15:15] ​ We're not doing a lot of person to person and stuff like it's mass promotions to radio and Facebook. Martin ​ [00:15:22] ​ Is the Indian live music market growing. Sally ​ [00:15:26] ​ I think we have. We definitely have an explosion of live shows here and with more and more Indian population that has been increasing in the United States, we are able to bring in more and more shows. However we all need to understand that and especially we the promoters need to understand that if we continue at the pace that we are, we may risk saturating the market because you know there is a budget for everyone for their entertainment purposes, for travel purposes, for education purposes, and if you keep bringing shows every month back to back people will not be able to fund it. You know you're not going to find as many sponsors that you need in order to be financially successful. Martin ​ [00:16:21] ​ What advice would you have for anybody aspiring to be a local promoter in general or specifically with Indian market. Sally ​ [00:16:28] ​ Just like any other business in the world if you're aspiring to get into this market as a new promoter please do your due diligence. Just because you see a local promoter or a national promoter or an international promoter and you see all the glories you know all all that glitters is not gold. You know, be cautioned all that glitters is not gold. So do your homework do your due diligence before you spend a single dollar on any of these shows and becoming a promoter. Have contracts written contracts. Read them. Have your lawyers read them. Make sure that if and when the moment comes these contracts are going to hold in the court of law. Believe it or not you don't know when you will need it. Martin ​ [00:17:27] ​ That's some major scary stuff. Martin ​ [00:17:28] ​ Major scary stuff because people are only in these shows- majority of  the promoters are in these shows for themselves only and so you need to be careful. Martin ​ [00:17:42] ​ Now we're gonna get into the Indian music industry all the way over there in India. What's one word that sums it up if you could think of just one word- I'll give you two words, but what's one word that might sum it up. Sally ​ [00:17:55] ​ Fusion. Martin ​ [00:17:56] ​ Fusion. How fusion? Sally ​ [00:17:59] ​ There's this fusion of old songs from the 1950s and 60s and 70s that are being re-mixed and brought in to the new market. The fusion between east and west, the fusion even between the Bollywood and Hollywood industries. So within Indian industry also there is a fusion and within Indian and international there is fusion. Martin ​ [00:18:29] ​ Would you say that the music industry -I believe you just said it but is the music industry in India growing? Sally ​ [00:18:35] ​ Exploding at the speed of lightning. Martin ​ [00:18:40] ​ What's really attributed to that the sudden explosion? Sally ​ [00:18:44] ​ Population. Martin ​ [00:18:45] ​ Is there an increase of accessibility to technology to those mobile platforms. Sally ​ [00:18:59] ​ I would want to give credit to the Western world especially the US. We have so many reality shows and we have so many opportunities that we have given to our shows via television and Netflix and everything that there is so much raw talent out there and these young talent never got the opportunity that they were seeking to show off their talent or bring it to the world and when the name itself- Bollywood comes from Hollywood. So you know we're kind of replicating what Hollywood does. So everything that Hollywood did here, now we have it in India. So if you have a sitcom you know who wants to be a millionaire we have [] in India. So this has given an Indian market also. It has given opportunities for the the population for the audiences across the nation, across the religions, across the cultural boundaries, across the traditions, where I have seen from little kids 3 years old to grandmothers 80 years old coming and performing on stage.This has also brought families together in many many many cases we have seen that you know the typical family wars where everybody lives together in a family that the son and their parents and their families and the children. It seems like they brought them together the love of the music. That's one of the things that also led me into the music industry is music can unite people across the borders. Even when we talk about India Pakistan conflict at its highest right now that the music is still uniting people across both the countries. So there truly is. Coming togetherness through the music. ​ [00:21:24] ​ So what style of music is the most popular in India. I guess pop music is "popular" music but which specifically genre or style is is trending in India. And then is film- the application of film to a song big or like does the film industry play huge role in trending music or music that is- just music in general. Sally ​ [00:21:58] ​ The film industry has always played a big role in music and it still does and I believe it i would continue to dominate. But however we do see we never had this pop and R&B kind of albums coming out in India before. So there was absolutely no music outside of the film industry, but now we're seeing a rise in that as well with the YouTube and everything also. We see a rise in that. So that's your second part of your question. And then coming to the first part again I'm going to go into fusion. So there's classical music and fusion. There's a [] fusion so different genres of Indian music and  fusion but classical music will always be a part of the Indian culture in a huge way. We from generation to generation, you know, we should continue to to market our classical music as much as everybody loves pop and wants to be more Western. We should continue to promote classical music. That's the roots that we come from. And I do like to see and I I am very proud to see and I'm very happy to see that the 1950s and 60s songs that our children had never heard before, through the invention of remix, at least they're getting introduced back into those markets where my daughters are actually coming back and they want to see the movies from the yesteryears. So yeah that's what we want to do you know we want to introduce them to the yesteryears- that is India. Martin ​ [00:23:57] ​ What do you think the music. Indian music market will look like in 10 years from its current state of mind and how just crazy things have gotten. Sally ​ [00:24:07] ​ Hard to predict, but they'll definitely continue to follow Hollywood. Bollywood has done that for years and they'll continue to follow Hollywood. And I also see a rise in Hollywood industry as well where you know you see a lot of Korean artists popping up and my girls are like crazy for them. So as Hollywood gets into the Korean market and the Chinese and the Japanese market I'm sure the Indian market is going to head in that direction as well. But as long as the music can continue to unite the people in the world, i think that's a good trending. Martin ​ [00:24:51] ​ So next when we go on to the Viva global events. This is the big topic. It's a global thing. What is Viva global events in a nutshell? Sally ​ [00:25:06] ​ With all the experiences I've had in the music industry not all the time for all the shows I ended up making money. You know there there have been losses as well. So having said that I also was fortunate to make tons of friends and get connected to tons of music lovers and promoters and friends all over the globe. And I realized that there were just so many people following me on social media and always wanted to know what am I going to do next. Who am I bringing next. And so many people who wanted to get involved in this. So in order to accommodate a lot of people who are my friends and have them join with me and do something crazy as crazy as I can do and become a part of things that I have done. One of my other passions was event planning. I am very good with decorating with planning with managing. So again with my partner we said if we can get into this global market of event planning and the Indian typically I have seen that as we Indians are getting more and more settled in us our children- they are moving away from the more traditional weddings and larger weddings. Our typical wedding could be anything from 500 people minimum to two thousand people to three thousand people. So I would love to do event coordinating for these kind of huge weddings. They are three to four days, you know, and you've got just so many opportunities so many things that you can do with it and imagination you know. Anything you imagine you can make it possible. Me having two daughters of my own, and I know that I'm going to go through this with my own children, I'm getting a heads up on how to do these with my girls. And we just opened it six months ago. We just, you know, in October last year we went in public with it. And we've done small things from birthday parties to anniversaries to just music parties to full fledge Indian weddings to corporate events for which I was in India and hosting mayors fundraising parties so all kinds and all things that you can think of, you can imagine you can- and that is the logo of our company. And when we say global we say viva which is in San Antonio Spanish word 'Viva'. And when you add a letter H to it becomes Vivah means wedding in my country. So we kind of design the logo creatively where we took the H and put it in Hindi. So unless you can speak Hindi you don't know it's Vivah with an H. You're just  gonna Viva which it makes it a global logo and that's what we are telling our clients and our customers throughout the globe. Is your imagination, our innovative style, will impress, you know, anything that you're seeking to do and you'll come back to us. And I've been able to include a lot of my friends across the globe whether they are photographers or videographers or decorators or just A.V. (audio videos) or you know or singers or musicians. I'm involving them all. Martin ​ [00:29:00] ​ What advice would you provide other aspiring global promoters/event coordinators? Sally ​ [00:29:14] ​ Friends. Having tons and tons and tons of friends. Doing a global thing, you know, is actually not easy. But when you have the right friends, and the right contacts, and the right relationships, and know that this entire business is built on relationships and friendships where all my friends wanted to get involved, so i’ve been able to get them involved. We’ve also taken the events to them taken the things to them, where it is also a referral. If i get something through you, you get consultation fees right back. You get referral fees right back. So this is where we are heading. With a small idea, we would like to grow into where at the end of the year i don’t want any of my friends to have lost any money. So we are all in this together for the fun of it, for the love of it, for the passion of it, but we all gain when everything is said and done. And the friendships are going to stay in tact through the years and we just grow together. That’s our definition of being global. That we’re not only catering to our customers and our clients, but we’re all growing together Martin ​ [00:30:52] ​ Well Sally it looks like we’re unfortunately out of time. hopefully we’ll be able to do this again. I don’t know when, ​ ​ but if anybody listening to this podcast has anymore questions, you can reach out to Sally directly at (210) 705-0510 or her email at pinky@vivaglobalevents.com Sally ​ [00:31:22] ​ And if i don’t answer your question feel free to leave me a message and i will get back to you. That’s a promise. Martin ​ [00:31:31] ​ Thanks again! Sally ​ [00:31:32] ​ Thank you so much!