Pondicherry’ s popular hotel Promenade in June, launched its themed bar named Storyteller’ s. This place will provide a space for artists from the community to share their art.
We spoke to Mr. Dilip Kapoor, the Founder of HiDesign properties and Kapil Thirwani, the man behind the amazing sound at the venue.
What inspired you to start the Storytellers ' Bar?
Dilip Kapoor: Any community needs places to gather, to meet, to share and entertain. Pondicherry, with its strong community focus from the Ashram and Auroville, which are among the most successful " communes " in the world, has a special heritage and interest in communities. With the tourist boom in full swing in Pondicherry, we felt the Promenade with its incredibly central location would be an ideal meeting place for locals and tourists. The lounge brings together entertainment, socializing into a space that has the heritage of Pondicherry and Auroville built into it.
How did you discover a need for Music or performance based venue in Pondicherry?
Dilip Kapoor: Music is the most widely enjoyed entertainment, and Pondicherry had no such space. The need to provide a space for artists from our community, and to those who want to share their art with Pondicherry from all over the world, has long bee
What was the most difficult task before you could launch the StoryTellers ' Bar?
Dilip Kapoor: To have a space that could be sufficiently interesting for the best in this field. We are a small city, how do we get the attention of people like Simran Mulchandani, Kapil and Ayaz? I had to tempt them with a visit to Pondy, and a personally guided tour around Pondy and Auroville: that did it, they were personally in love with this community and did this creation as much out of love as business.
What is the vision for the Storytellers Bar as a music venue?
Simran: The Storytellers ' Bar is more than a music venue. While music will play an intrinsic part in it, and we plan on a cosmopolitan mix of Indian artists and those from around the world, we want to tell stories through many different mediums. Therefore we are looking at theatre, comedy, poetry, film, photography, art... Stories can be expressed in so many ways and The Storytellers ' Bar has been set up to explore those avenues. Also it isn ' t just our vision, this is a community project and we want the community, be it residents of Pondicherry and Auroville, or visitors to the town, to contribute with their thoughts, suggestions and stories.
What kind of Music and programming can we expect and how often will there be live gigs?
Simran: Once season gets going which is around mid-August, we plan to program 3-4 live nights a week, at least one movie night and some workshops on film, theatre, comedy etc with some live elements to them. We are still feeling the pulse of the scene and so things will be organic for a couple of months, but we are looking for a lot of input from the community, tapping into a lot of local talent.
The Score Magazine
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