Singer Akriti Kakar addresses audience misbehavior at concerts

Singer Akriti Kakar, the voice behind Saturday Saturday (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania), Iski Uski (2 States) and others, addresses audience misbehavior at recent music concerts featuring Indian and international artistes. A fan threw his T- shirt on Karan Aujla at Rolling Loud mid- performance, while the Bengaluru audience was caught pulling down Akon’s pants, in another incident fans got on stage and almost pushed Tyga off it at the Cherry Blossom Festival. Videos of the audience getting into fights with each other mid-performance on day one and two of Rolling Loud, have gone viral.

She says, “The people we have idolized and used to save money to buy cassettes and CDs’, they are coming to our country now and I’m glad the market is opening up. If this is how we treat them, I wonder if they would ever like to come back. A few rotten apples are spoiling the Indian imagery, that is know to treat guests without respect, which is a pity. What happened with Akon especially, nobody was laughing at the incident, infact we felt sorry. Even with our Indian aristes, there is a certain audience etiquette that has to be made mandatory. On one hand you are willing to spend huge money on concert tickets but even if you have a free ticket, any artiste performing deserves respect.”

She adds that for female singers who had been such facing such harassment for years, things have improved in the times of smartphones and social media. She says, “Years ago I was a naive timid performer, a little girl just out of school with no credits, so at times amidst a lot of applause there used to be some odd person teasing me with unnecessary sleazy remarks, even though I’ve never worn inappropriate clothes. Just because I’m a woman. It doesn’t happen anymore, because I too have a voice that can not just sing but give it back.”