Raipur: Bands go silent as coronavirus trims big fat Indian weddings

By: Piyush Sarna

With the Covid-19 crisis hitting every aspect of life, including the “big, fat Indian wedding,” brass bands are facing the music.

Given the current situation, it does not look like the silent instruments will play any time soon.

With only 10 guests allowed per wedding, bands are not exactly on top of organisers’ priority list.

In pre-Covid days, (which is how people have learnt to delineate their lives), wedding organisers would hire 11 to 21 performers with the procession at a minimum cost of Rs 1,000 per performer, say wedding band owners . Now, the number has come down to a mere five performers, that too at slashed prices.

Sanjay, owner of ‘ Krishna Band ’ in Sector 23 said, “Business has come down to zero. We got only a few bookings when Unlock 1.0 took place.

All our performers take every requisite precaution and instruments are sanitised regularly. We haven’t laid off anyone and call the staff whenever there is work. There are more than 150 bookings in a year but we have received only two to three bookings since March this year.”

While October to April is wedding season, band owners do not expect more than 20% to 30% business. They fear similar circumstances next year too.

Sant Lal Dabla, president, Tricity Band Association , and owner of ‘ Capital Band ’ in Sector 23, said, “It’s been a month and we haven’t received a single query. We had good amount of bookings in March and April but they were eventually cancelled.”

Besides reduced need for staff, restricted timings have made props like horse carts and floodlights irrelevant, say band owners, adding they earned substantial margin from such things. “Hosts are no doubt happy too as the cost of the wedding has come down to Rs 10 lakh to a mere Rs 10,000,” Sant quipped.

‘Harish Band’ in Phase I, Mohali, which shot into fame after featuring in the song, Emotional Atyachar in the movie ‘Dev D,’ claims that most of their staff went back home in March and now they only have people who are local residents.