Coldplaying Interview with Koval, founder of A Little Anarky - First Hand Account Of Chris Martin in

[atlas2000]

Interview with Koval Bhatia, founder of A Little Anarky Films

 

A Little Anarky are a New Delhi based digital video agency. They have worked with many major brands including Ford, Nestlé and Harley Davidson among others. They are made up of a 20 plus team of "anarkists" but their founder Koval was lucky enough to be in attendance when Chris Martin performed at the Summer House Cafe. This marked the first time a member of Coldplay had played in India. We were fortunate enough to get a chance to interview Koval to get a first hand account of what happened when Chris Martin played in India for the very first time!

Coldplaying: Chris performed at the Summer House Cafe and you were lucky enough to be in attendance. Is the Summer House Cafe a big place and would it be frequented by celebrities who are visiting the area?

Koval: Summer House Cafe is actually a fairly small cafe/bar. It happens to be at the edge of Hauz Khas Village, which is considered for the past few years as Delhi's hottest area, and the centre of all music, events, etc.

I have lived/worked here for nearly 5 years (it was a very quiet place that attracted artists, musicians and barely anyone else). Anarky's office has always been here since I founded it. Summer House Cafe does have great music gigs, but no celebs as such. It's a great indie music spot.

 

Coldplaying: Were people aware of the performance before hand or was it totally impromptu?

 

Koval: Totally impromptu. I was in bed when i found out. My friend is a regular at the bar and she told me on the hush

 

 

Coldplaying: Was he there alone or did he have some sort of an entourage with him?

 

Koval:

He was with Frieda Pinto, a bunch of musicians and standup comedians from India, plus organisers of NH7 weekender.

But alone, as such. No other band members.

It was cool. There were less than a hundred people at the bar maybe and he suddenly came on stage and started singing

Not even stage, he was right there. People went nuts. He played 3 songs and was quite chilled out

 

Coldplaying: Are you a fan of the band? It must have been exciting to witness Chris' debut performance in India.

 

Koval:

I'm guessing this was a smart PR tactic. I'm a fan of their earlier work. I went there mostly as a filmmaker interested in documentation. Bit mercenary of me, but well :)

And it's always nice to see someone whose work you've liked performing in a small intimate setting, and so randomly.

People here were genuinely surprised and thrilled. No one knew or expected the gig so imagine.

And it's not a big place, and twas a weekday, so overall a lowkey affair.

 

Coldplaying: You mentioned before you thought that you thought it would be interesting to document. It certainly paid off well for you as it currently has over 70,000 views on YouTube in just 2 days and it has been shared by various media outlets. How are you and the other people involved with A Little Anarky coping with this attention online?

 

Koval: It's been nice to get noticed because of this video, and to be perfectly honest, that was the intention behind releasing little teasers and a quick full edit: to make sure Anarky gets to be the first name associated with that awesome night! we're always trying to bring great content to people, especially music-based content and this video helped get us more subscribers that'll make sure our other stuff that's not quite so glamorous also gets attention. We're planning big things this year at Anarky so this has been a great nudge.

I, personally, just got a lot of comments/messages about how lucky I was and how jealous people feel. I guess I was lucky my friend was there but to be perfectly honest, I dashed out of bed and reached summer house from home within ten minutes of finding out, with my phone ready and stood near the front of the stage area just so I could get a great view and a better video. Nobody else at the bar even knew what was about to happen except Chris Martin and his entire entourage. The rest of the crowd there went nuts when this got announced coz they hadn't noticed Chris Martin despite him having been there for an hour (nobody would've believed it had he not been announced) and I was quietly positioned at the front already, which is what I consider my real luck!

 

 

Coldplaying: Finally, Are you surprised at how successful A Little Anarky has become since it started in 2011?

Koval: I started this company when I was 23 and it's been 4 and a half years. We've grown from one person who did odd projects as a cinematographer/editor/writer/director (me) to over 20 of us and we've done some crazy stuff over the years. We work on some amazing projects with some of the biggest brands in the world. We're making some big moves this year in terms of direction and content, so it should be an exciting year! Why would I be surprised at the growth we've had when it's been painstakingly charted and planned thoroughly?

 

Thanks to Koval, from A Little Anarky for granting us this interview. You can watch the full video of Chris' performance in Delhi shot by Koval, here:

[video=youtube;_AeV92QfTFE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AeV92QfTFE

 

Check out A Little Anarky's site and work here: http://www.littleanarky.com/

[grids]

Great stuff!

[Christa42]

This is great!