BENGALURU : Are we musicians, criminals who are promoting crime in the city,” asks Rahul Tadimalla, he keyboardist, vocalist and manager of Border Blast, whose show scheduled for today at Take 5, Indiranagar, was cancelled all of a sudden last week after Chief Minister Kumaraswamy allegedly ordered the police to take stern action against live bands owing to rising crime rates. This crackdown came after a 2005 Karnataka High Court order was upheld by the Supreme Court in January this year. The Licensing and Controlling of Places of Public Entertainment (Bengaluru City) Order of 2005 mandated restaurants to obtain a license for live music performances.
“Our show was programmed a month in advance. We had guests travelling from Singapore and Pune for it. Bengaluru is known to to be encouraging towards art, culture, and known to be the live music capital. It is a sad state of affairs. Many of my bandmates are full-time musicians, whose livelihoods depends on these performances,” he says. In mid-July, the blues and rock ‘n’ roll band has another performance scheduled, but they are mentally preparing for another cancellation. “After framing pets as criminals, the new government has banned live music. They are separating art from art lovers,” the furious musician said taking to social media.
Agrees Peter of Chronic Blues Circus, a 30-year-old band, terming it a “huge disappointment”. “We were told last-minute about the cancellation. Our income depends on such gigs . Three gigs have been
cancelled, including one on June 30. This affects us, sound technicians and the audience, he says, adding,” This is what happens when a new government comes in – the entertainment industry is targeted first. If this is an old law, why implement it now? Every band in the country wants to perform here, it’s ridiculous that this ban is happening now.”
With confusion prevailing over the rule, Girish Pradhan, manager of Girish and The Chronicles, was first informed that his show on Friday, which previously stood cancelled, would go on as per schedule. “It is ridiculous to think that having live bands play increases the crime rate. They have taken the court’s order for dance bars and put all live performances under one law. This city is important to us as most musicians here don’t have day jobs,” he says.
Raman Iyer, saxophonist estimates his personal loss at around
` 60,000, while the band (different setups for four different performances)hsd lost over `1.5 lakh for them. Viraj Suvarna, owner of Take 5, says that until 2004, “any building that was two or three floors did not require an occupancy certificate.” “Most of the older pubs are located in older buildings and now to regularise, it is difficult. Hence, the fire department will not be able to provide certificates.The building owners are not prepared to spend money for the same, which is the main requirement to apply for a license,” he says.
A show scheduled for Saturday was cancelled as the “police asked us to apply for a
license and said we could resume only after getting it. The commissioner’s office is refusing to
accept our applications without occupancy certificate and clearance from the fire department. There needs to b a solution and the police could be a bit more lenient with establishments housed in older buildings,” he says. When we contacted The Humming Tree’s Nikhil Barua, he was to meet the police commissioner for clarification. (With inputs from Mythili Bhat)