Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a five-day long event held usually in the second week of January every year and is attended by approximately 50,000 students from colleges across South India. Saarang is very popular among college students and Chennai localites alike because of the wide variety of cultural events (music and dance shows), celebrities and competitions it hosts.

Saarang is an entirely non-profit organisation run by the students of IIT Madras.The organisational structure of Saarang comprises the Core group members (or Cores), and Co-ordinators. The Cores head the various departments of Finance, Publicity, Sponsorship, Events, Design, Hospitality, Facilities and Requirements, Security and QMS (Quality Management System).They are assisted by the co-ordinators (around 200 in number) who are assigned more specific work.

Saarang's Core Member Team, 2015

History[edit]

In the early 1970s, a "cultural week" festival was held.^[2]

The fest was formally started in 1974-75 as Mardi Gras, the focus of the festival being to promote interest in cultural and literary activities and to develop the organizational skills of the students.^[3]

Events[edit]

Students a performing at a Choreo event

Lectures and demonstrations[edit]

Kiran Bedi talks to students as part of Lectures and Demonstrations at Saarang, IIT Madras

Saarang has observed a wide range of personalities present lectures and conduct demonstrations during the event and as a part of Pre-Saarang activities. “Spotlight”, a concept in the previous editions of Saarang was a platform for famous and notable persons from various fields to address the audience and hold interactive sessions with them. Past speakers to have featured in Saarang include Dr. Shashi Tharoor,Kamal Hassan, Shriya Saran, Manu Joseph, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Leela Samson, Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi, Anita Rathnam, Ira Trivedi, and R. Balakrishnan.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui at Saarang's Lectures and Demonstrations

Competitions[edit]

Competitive events are held throughout Saarang and registration begins in December through their website. There are events in every field of art, dance, music, apart from literary events and group events like Scavenger Hunt. There are also informal stalls set up every day for spectators to participate in many small events.

IIT students perform at Choreo Nite

World Cultural Shows[edit]

The “World Culture Show” (WCS) at Saarang is a platform to showcase culture and talent from around the world and hosts artists from various countries across the world. There are have been many such performances at Saarang, in many kinds of music, like Irish folk, contemporary music, alternative rock, hip-hop and acoustic music. In the past, WCS associated with the Goethe-Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, Alliance Française de Madras, the Embassy of Israel and the US Consulate, Chennai, among other international organisations in introducing their artistes into Chennai’s cultural scene.

Abaji performs at the World Cultural Show in Saarang

Rock Show[edit]

The Rock Show is a crowd-puller every year because of the unique brand of music it brings to the audience every year. At, Saarang, musicians of international bands of rock, alternative rock, metal and fusion have performed.

• 2003: Brahma (Headlining)^[4]
• 2004: Motherjane (Headlining),^[5]
• 2005: Orange Street (Headlining) Moksha (in 2005),^[6]
• 2006: Led Zepplica (Headlining), Parikrama^[7]
• 2007: Merzhin (Headlining), Mynta, Junkyard Groove^[8]
• 2008: Firebrands, Prestorika (in 2008)^[9]
• 2009: Opeth (Headlining)^[10][11]
• 2010: Hammerfall (Headlining) and Hurricane Bells^[12][13]
• 2011: Pain Of Salvation (Headlining),^[14][15]
• 2012: Vildhjarta (Headlining)^[16]
• 2013: Anathema (Headlining), Bevar Sea, Heretic^[7][16]
• 2014: Architects (Headlining), Grimus^[16][17]
• 2015: Karnivool(Headlining) preceded by Paradigm Shift.

Classical Night[edit]

Sonal Mansingh performs at Classical Night

Every year Saarang starts with “Classical night” in the Open Air Theatre of IIT Madras. Reputed performers of Indian classical music and dance forms inaugurate Saarang at this professional show. M. Balamuralikrishna, Daksha Seth Dance Academy represented by Isha Sarvani,^[18][18] Mallika Sarabhai and troupe, Anil Srinivasan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Navin Iyer, Ganesh Kumaresh, S. Sowmya, B.S. Purushothaman, Sonal Mansingh, Aruna Sairam,Shobana^[19] have performed in the previous editions of Saarang.

Popular Night[edit]

Salim -Sulaiman perform at Popular Night

Popular Night is hosted at the Open Air Theatre of IIT Madras. It features live performances by members of the Bollywood music industry. Popular Night has featured artistes like Devi Sri Prasad and Vishal& Shekhar (in the year 2012), Krishnakumar Kunnath, (in the year 2011),^[20] the musical trio Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy(in 2010)^{[21] [22] [23] [24]} Sonu Nigam(in 2009),^[19][25] Lucky Ali and Karthik (in 2008),^[26][27] Sukhwinder Singh (in 2007),^[8] Shaan (in 2004).,^[28] Salim-Sulaiman and Benny Dayal.

Workshop as part of Saarang Eunoia

People at the Terry Fox run to raise cancer awareness, at IIT Madras

ISO 9001:2008[edit]

Saarang got ISO 9001:2008^[29]

Past associates and sponsors[edit]

Saarang has attracted sponsorship^[30] from various established corporations owing to the phenomenal participation of students coming from various parts of the country and abroad. Some of the companies that have been sponsoring various events of Saarang are Max, Vodafone Essar,^[31] Bharti Airtel,^[32] Nokia,^[33] SBI, Canara Bank, Derby, Wildcraft[10], Durex Jeans, Pepe Jeans, Aircel, INOX, McDonald’s, TATA Tion, isoft,^[32] Club Mahindra Holidays. The Public Relation i.e. the media sector of Saarang has witnessed association from several big names like the Times of India, The Hindu, Radio Mirchi, The Week, UTV Bindass, NDTV Hindu, Sulekha.com,^[34] 160by2, Amadeus global studios], miglebox.com.

References[edit]

Chennai portal

External links[edit]

• Official Website