It was attended by a host of top Bollywood and Indian TV celebrities, some of whom also performed, and the show was also broadcast live on TV for India's number one Channel, "Star Plus".
Sonpal has designed all the major awards ceremonies in India for the last four years, and was a natural choice to be the creative mastermind of this one. All lighting equipment was supplied by his rental company, Mumbai-based Jagmag Electric.
Sonpal's starting point for the lighting was the spectacular wide set designed by Mr. Kunal for Kosmos India consisting of a spherical central feature and a series of cone shaped pyramids flanking both sides of the stage, used for stage entry and exit points.
To match the set, he wanted the lighting to look very 'televisual'. The rig was configured across three trusses, with12 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and 20 Robe Scan 1200 XTs, in addition to a large generic rig.
The ColorSpots were rigged vertically on the floor and on the front truss, six of the Robe Scan 1200 XTs were positioned either side of the set pyramids, with the other 14 rigged vertically on the centre truss.
Sonpal uses Robe on all his major shows, and he chose them for this one because of their "Good optics, brightness and zoom facilities". He maximized the ColorSpot 1200's excellent gobo collection for set and stage texturing and numerous projection effects, commenting that he particularly likes the 'sun man' 'space tunnel' and 'radial dashes' gobos.
He also produced some excellent 'beam technology' looks, he says: "The ColorSpot 1200 is an awesome fixture for this."
Sonpal operated the show himself using an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision and a Pearl 2004 console.
(Chris Henry)
