[1]Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, the titular king of Tripura, is everything you wouldn’t expect a maharaja to be. For starters, there are no secretaries, public relations personnel or other such plebeians making access to him a long-winding, protocol-ridden process.
Perhaps accustomed to people’s confusion over how to address him (“His Highness”, “His Majesty” or anything on those lines), he introduces himself by saying, “Call me Pradyot.”
Neck-deep in organising the Hoobastank concert in Shillong, Pradyot, who is also a member of the Congress and the editor of the magazine The Northeast Times, has for long been a patron of the arts. Most of the illustrious international artistes who have visited and performed in Shillong, have come on his personal invitation. From Eric Martin (of Mr Big Fame), Firehouse, Sebastian Bach to Hoobastank, these acclaimed artistes and bands have not been able to resist the royal invitation and rock-loving fans of the Northeast.
“Music is in our DNA. Everybody in the Northeast takes great pride and passion in music, particularly rock. Even a taxi driver in this region will know the Guns N’ Roses discography. So when I host a concert I ensure that it is priced in such a way that as many people as possible can attend it,” he says earnestly.
The royal makes no bones about the fact that he does not organise concerts for the money. He adds, “I’m not a promoter, I’m a music lover. If a promoter wants to take the artiste to another city after the Northeast, I’m fine with it. But I won’t organise a national tour. I call musicians who reflect my personal taste and I do it for personal reasons. The proceeds of the concerts go for a charitable cause that I feel strongly about. This is not a business for me.”
He may not consider himself a music promoter but this Congressman won’t split his political and rocker image either. Pradyot has been a vocalist belting out tracks from Metallica, Dream Theater and Guns N’ Roses, and despite being a maharaja-politician-editor, he is the same person wearing multiple hats. “Why should a politician shun his musical inclinations? I was raised in a house that loved music. My uncle was the late Bollywood composer Rahul Dev Burman. His father too was such an acclaimed composer. My love for music is not restricted by genres. I can’t speak for those in other states of the country, but people of my region accept my royal background, my inclination towards rock and my work for the Congress without mixing one for the other. I speak for people of my region when I say that music and politics here don’t mix and instead co-exist peacefully. Maybe I’m lucky that I can be the politician who hosts concerts because people of my region encourage me to be that way.”
Despite attending a whole host of international concerts of award-winning artistes, Pradyot considers the Firehouse concert one of the best he has ever attended.
“I was 23 years old when I organised that gig; lost tons of money but was gratified to find that 40,000 people attended it. Security concerns were threatening to render the event a damp squib, but the stupendous response made me feel like we proved a point to ourselves (organisers and people of the region) and all those who thought the concert wouldn’t happen. As long as there’s music in the world, the spirit of the people can never be beaten,” he concludes.
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