Antaragni

This article is about the IIT Kanpur cultural festival. For the Indian fusion music band, see Antaragni (band).
Antaragni (festival)
Genre Non-Profit, Student run Organization
Location(s) Kanpur, India
Years active 50
Founded 1965
Next event 29 October -1 November 2015
Patron(s) Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Website
www.antaragni.in

Antaragni (Hindi: अंतराग्नि; English: The Fire Within) is the annual cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, held in the month of October, and is one of the popular college festivals in India.[1] It is a four-day-long festival, attracting participation from over 200 colleges of India.[2][3] It includes professional shows, competitions, amateur rock bands, Ustads and Pandits, fashion shows, Indian folk dances, and other events. Antaragni has included performances by Vishal Shekhar, Sonu Nigam, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Poets of the Fall, Sunidhi Chauhan and Raghu Dixit. The festival also aims to serve as a platform for the expression of youth opinion on social problems.

History

Antarāgni (in Hindi antar means "within" and agni means "fire") stands for 'The Fire Within'. The name of the festival was changed from Culfest to Antaragni in 1993. It began as an inter-collegiate cultural event in 1964, and now draws in over 30,000 visitors from 200 colleges in India. Antaragni is a non-profit organisation run completely by students of IIT Kanpur. It started off small, funded entirely by the Student Gymkhana of IIT Kanpur. Today the budget is almost Rs 1 crore, raised through sponsorship. raised

Year Title Sponsor Theme Headlining Performances
2006 None Grammy-winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Padm Shri Dr Nerla Venumadha, dancer Astad Deboo.[4]
2007 None Poets of the Fall, Atif Aslam
2008 None Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Farhan Akhtar
2009 None I am the Change KK, Irish Rock Band Jaded Sun
2010 None Bollywood Shafqat Amanat Ali, Vasundhara Das
2011 Red Chief Super Heroes Sunidhi Chauhan, Irish Rock Band Swanee River
2012 Integriti Medieval Fantasy Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Raghu Dixit, American Rock
2013 Tata Steel Mafia Sonu Nigam, Indian Ocean (band), The Flying Eyes
2014 Hero Aham Bhokalam Vishal-Shekhar, Agnee, Indus Creed

Dream On campaign

The Dream On campaign allows participants to be mentored by people working in industry. Dream On was held for the first time with Antaragni 12. The winners were provided with direct internship and training opportunities with organisations including Shiamak Davar's Institute for Performing Arts, Barry John Acting Studio, Lalit Parimoo's Acting Academy and Swarnbhoomi Academy of Music.

Events

India Inspired is a political forum, with politicians, leaders and media persons.[5] Issues which are socially relevant and with an emphasis on youth culture are discussed. In the past years it has witnessed participation from the student community and has led to spirited discussions. Speakers at this event have included Shekhar Kammula, noted Telegu film director; Vineet Joshi CBSE chairman; and Vasundhara Das, actress, singer and social activist.

Kavi Sammelan is a poetry competition. Antaragni '10 had Rahat Indori, a painter, professor, poet and film lyricist, and the poet Dr. Kirti Kale whose programs have been broadcast on radio and TV.[6]

Model United Nations was a new event in Antaragni '10. It was the first of its kind in India, with study guides for each committee and other resource support by dedicated in-house executive board. Aside from this, IITK MUN held a Human Rights Council, General Assembly and the Environmental Council. The MUN had participation from 200 delegates from all over India.

Competitions

Competitions in dance, dramatics, fine arts, film and photography, and musicals are conducted. There are also debates, discussions, word games and writing contests in English and Hindi. Many quizzes are held by professional quizmasters. Each of these events has cash prizes and college teams competing for the top prize. Some of the previous filmmaking contests have been judged by established film directors. Dance events are held in the auditorium, with different styles of dance exhibited.

Junoon and Synchronicity organizes eastern and western band rock competitions.

Workshops and talks

Workshops, talks and exhibitions are held by experts in their fields. The Digital Filmmaking Workshop by Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods International, Asia's largest film, television, animation and media arts institute, was held in Antaragni '10. Talks in Antaragni usually center around the theme of the festival for that year. Anatargni '10 had the national award-winning film director Mahesh Bhatt, director of several acclaimed art films.

Professional shows

Popular bands and musicians perform under the banner of Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is the celebration at the end of the festival. In the past performances have been held by Poets of the Fall, Glyder, KK, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Farhan Akhtar, Shafqat Amanat Ali and Atif Aslam.

Prima Nocte Antaragni is opened with Prima Nocte, a celebration of IITK culture.[6]

Synchronicity, is a rock festival in which draws rock enthusiasts from all over the country. Indian bands compete over three days and for a chance to win cash prizes worth Rs 1.5 lacs. Parikrama started their musical career in the early 1990s by winning Synchronicity, and went on to perform the world over, including performance at the Download Festival. In Antaragni '10 the bands Weaponshop and Them Clones performed on the final day.

India Haat is a showcase of Indian performing arts, including the heritage of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Goa, and others.

Ritambhara is a fashion festival that aims to create a platform for promoting upcoming youth in the fields of design and modelling, with participation from the fashion colleges of India, including NIFDs, and NIFTs.

Championship

An Outstation Championship Trophy is awarded to the college, other than IIT-Kanpur, which has the highest cumulative score in all the individual competitions. Championship trophies are also awarded for the best performances in individual categories of competitions:

Organisation

The festival is organised by the students. The Antaragni chairman is the only faculty member of the team. Organisation is structured into two levels. The core team consists of festival coordinators (overall heads) and the heads of competitions, events, finance, marketing, show management and public relations. Each category of competition is managed by coordinators with help of secretaries and volunteers. Other auxiliary units such as public relations are managed by executives with the help of secretaries and volunteers. A team of nearly 800 students works for 8 months to plan and manage the festival

Participating colleges

Antaragni includes participation from several colleges of the country. University of Delhi (DU) along with colleges from states like U.P., Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, and colleges from the Kolkata and Mumbai circuit. There is altogether participation from more than 200 colleges nationwide.

Commercial opportunities

The festival has attracted sponsorships from corporations due to participation of students from all over India. Alumni also visit the institute during this time. Companies associated with events of Antaragni have included State Bank of India, Pepsi, PVR, Spykar, Hero Honda, Classmate, UTV, Radio Mirchi, British Council, WWF, DUKE, DIGIT, DHL, LIC, IDEA, Mahindra, Goa Tourism, Virgin Records, VENUS, Dainik Jagran, Jindal Steel&Power, Union Bank Of India, Woodland, Accel Partners, JK White, and Channel V. The event has a footfall of over 15,000 in around four days.

Gallery

References

[7]

  1. ↑ RnM Team (23 October 2007). "Big FM ties up with IIT Kanpur`s annual festival- Antaragni 07". Radioandmusic.com. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  2. ↑ Rao Jaswant Singh (27 October 2007). "Antaragni spreads at IIT, Kanpur". Expressindia.com. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "?". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012.
  4. ↑ HT Correspondent (27 October 2006). "Antaragni-06 from Nov 2". Hindustantimes.com. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  5. ↑ "Vote Politics hitting Democracy", Hindustan Times (2008.10.26, Kanpur, pg 5)
  6. 1 2 "Antaragni-06 from Nov 2". Hindustan Times. 27 October 2006. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Antaragni 2015 Abraxas NU: The Youth magazine

External links

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