Boredom is not a bad thing at all if you ask the band members of 50 Otages. When lead guitarist Ranjith Balasubramani bought a guitar and was wondering what to do with it, he quickly pulled in members from his college, Audencia Nantes School of Management-France and formed 50 Otages. “50 Otages is incidentally a tram stop in Nantes-France,” says Balasubramani.
The other members of the team include singer Aditya Joshi, drummer Tobi Magnus from Germany, bass guitarist Saurabh Mukherjee, singer Manoj Joshi and Afeef M, rhythm guitarist. All are students of Master’s in Management.
Having started jamming in November last year, the band was officially formed in February. “We mostly play Hindi Rock and English songs,” says Balasubramani. Besides regularly performing in the campus fests of Audencia, the band has performed in Club Alta Café Indian fest of Ecole Polytechnic, France and a few clubs in Nantes.
The band members get together and jam at least once a week and practise at the music room available at Audencia. On balancing academics and band practice, the team members say that they have a genuine passion towards music and wouldn’t mind if academics takes a backseat.
“We derive our inspiration from Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, and even the Bollywood flick Rock On,” says Balasubramani. With the band members in the final leg of their studies at Audencia, they say they need to wait and watch if they could take the band further.
— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com