Exist Underground: The Bhavishyavani Story

Rows and rows of crooked teeth line up against your back, and not one of them makes you feel. It’s just this generation you’re born into and its lust for that desensitized sound of the future. You can choose to partake: self-glorified extended plays spat over cover charge, and an in-bred press with their mouths wide open to collect — we’re only hoping you put a number to your step. Or you could just keep your mouth shut.

922361_522458407818491_838752465_o

I. The Press

M.Mat

DJ Loopkin

Bhavishyavani Boat Party

One of these terms that send me into lockjaw, given my position as a journalist and centered in this room, is their aversion to the press. It’s as if I missed a warning nailed to their front door.

“The first time the press came to our office to take an interview they wrote that we’re a bunch of kids with swanky cars, putting on our fanciest boots and lugging around big speakers to play music,” Tejas grumbles. “The press will always say what they want to say.”

blog

II. Nineteen Ninety Nine

“We ran two things out of that garage — a DJ console hooked up to a swift 5000-a-month speaker rental deal and a printing press,”

“We would allow anyone to come out there and play their mixtapes. One of the first guys we met through that scene were Mukul, Masta Justy, Charlee and Gido. There was no line-up. It was just a really open party and a space for us to play the music we love. But then the parties started to get bigger. We had to do something to support them”

“a way that was not kitsch.”

Otlo At Bhavishyavani Backyard

“We had college kids standing near Leopold Café or Just Around the Corner handing out these flyers along with cassettes containing our mixtapes,” Tejas continues. “People would listen to it in their car, look at these flyers they could oddly relate, and be more inclined to see what the parties were all about.”

Together, both entertainers and audience would be the victors for the night, and share the spoils. I mean, I’ve heard your social media and I’m here to preach the power of old-fashioned word of mouth! These uptown raiders, these street rats, these ‘kids with fancy cars, and fancy boots,’ they did it all on their own. They landed gigs in venues your adolescent curfews weren’t ready to deal with yet— RGs, 1900s, Razzberry Rhinoceros, true nineties solitaires— but those weren’t even the tip of the rhinestone.

“There were some venues that were so perfect just because they were hard to find, like Scream, which was near the airport behind Baba International. We used to have all the craziest parties there."

“We used to set up robots there, you know, animatronic ones? The ones you see at the Ganesha festival? We’d have this big Ganesha rat playing the drums at the entrance.”

III. “We don’t Build Spaceships, We are Spaceships”

“We used to give our artwork out to our friends in advertising and design and we started getting actual inquiries for design work,”

“That’s how the design studio started.”

Bhavishyavani Party At Cool Chef Cafe

But there was more to it: the collective, all the members, they were becoming pioneers in their own fields. Independent filmmakers, musicians and designers; now the best damn pixel pushers in the business. Sure, they could still come down and DJ at the Bhavishyavani parties, but they were committed to the “big picture” contracts. It was a crucial point: this proprietary company of 'just friends’ needed to find out who was in it for the long haul, and restructure.

“His name is Deepak Bedi,”

“He was head of Bacardi for Mumbai, a legendary party animal with mad skills to remote control people and make them work together. He was our match maker.”

“You remember a Sony music album called Ibiza 2 Goa?”

“That was us! We had 2 teleporting machines of different colour schemes and that was it. As ridiculous as it was, it produced a domino effect, and so many other brands started asking for the Bhavishyavani treatment.”

IV. Eden

Scenes From An Aurus Sundowner

From where we stand, Bhavishyavani is an agency 15 years in the making. The tops of their 'fancy boots' are polished black but the soles are still caked with the mud from a duplicitous life. The wide smirks, a thriving influence on present day club culture -- the signs are all there, as long as you're looking.

“I'll give you the example of Sundowns,”

“We started a brand called Sundown for Aurus, which was an early client of ours. Today I get a message saying there are ‘Sundowners’ everywhere and it’s so important how they’ve modified the word Sundown to Sundowners. It’s like people going to a shop and saying they want an Amul Cadbury. Cadbury becomes the word to describe all chocolate.”

Flyer Of The Aurus Sundown Party By Bhavishyavani in 2013

“There’s a right time to communicate,”

“It’s called being underground. We prefer doing, then speaking. You have to plant the seed and only if it’s good underground will it impact the big world. We’ve worked on this for more than 10 years and we’re ready to show everyone what we have in store.”

“We wanted a festival for Bombay, for our city in particular,”

“I mean when we say festival, it has to combine every aspect of music, art and design — we would consider it in the same league as South Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda rather than just another music festival."

new

1901403_680786831985647_65120543_n

No one bites the bait. "Magnetic Fields was a travel festival - you go to a beautiful location and experience some great music. Eden is all about home turf. Our city and the way it mirrors Bhavishyavani's rise beyond the underground, the grand unveiling of the underground," they insist.

"Eden kicks off at Blue Frog, mirroring our inception into the underground; then we come up to sea level which are what the boat parties are about; then we hit the shore, marked by the palladium terraces outdoor party. And finally, we get into our spaceships at the after party which is being held at a higher level."

"It's about the whole journey."

More pictures from Bhavishyavani's Parties over the years :

Words: The Comma Fear Image Credit: Bhavishyavani Future Soundz

[In case you missed it, Homegrown also chronicled the evolution of Bhavishyavani's incredible artwork over the years and even got them to curate a playlist for us. Let the collective content whet your appetite for Eden Festival, which kicks off tomorrow. You can buy your tickets here. ]

The Grill

music

Exist Underground: The Bhavishyavani Story

Related Stories