Mood Indigo (festival)

Mood Indigo
Genre	Cultural
Attendance	88,000 Footfall, 630 colleges
Website	www.moodi.org

Mood Indigo, popularly known as MoodI or MI, is the annual cultural festival of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. It is a four-day long event held towards the end of December every year. It's last edition witnessed a footfall of more than 88,000 students from more than 630 colleges from across the country. Started in 1971 by a bunch of enthusiastic IITians, Mood Indigo, now in its 43rd edition, has snowballed to become the largest festival of its kind in Asia.

Introduction

Asha Bhosle and R D Burman at Mood Indigo 1981

Mood Indigo, Asia’s largest college cultural festival is a four day long annual event held towards the end of December every year. It is a student-run non-profit organization which caters primarily to the youth. Mood Indigo has seen the participation of numerous stalwarts in the cultural arena. A number of celebrated names like Asha Bhosle, R.D. Burman, KK, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Shaan, Hema Malini, Sonu Nigam, Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan, Shahid Kapoor, Saroj Khan, Ram Gopal Varma, Anupam Kher, Kabir Bedi, Neha Dhupia, Silk Route and Raageshwari have been associated with Mood Indigo. The festival has given platform to some of the country's best talents like Mani Ratnam, Nagesh Kukunoor, Amjad Khan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Hrishitaa Bhatt, and Parvathy Omanakuttan. Well known bands like Parikrama (band), Zero and Pentagram got spotlight in the music industry by performing in Livewire competition of Mood Indigo in the previous years. It has attracted major sponsors and extensive media coverage over the years. The team of Mood Indigo consists of student volunteers who work to promote creativity and intellectualism, the foundation of this festival, as symbolized by the 'Indigo' in its name.

History

The Core Group Members of Mood Indigo 1976 (with Nandan Nilekani)

Mood Indigo started back in 1971, with a low budget of ₹ 5,000, which was contributed partly by the IIT Bombay Gymkhana and the rest by advertisements in the Mood Indigo brochure. Mood Indigo as a purely student-run non-profit organization was set up in 1973. Henceforth the organization of Mood Indigo has been in the hands of the students of the institute. Mood Indigo has had a legacy of organisers that include names like Nandan Nilekani, Adil Zainulbhai, Atul Kanagat, Anand Sivakumaran, and many more.

The Core Group Members of Mood Indigo 2012

The name Mood Indigo was inspired by Duke Ellington’s jazz composition "Mood Indigo". The organizers also have another justification to the name. “The color chosen to be representative of the Mood was Indigo — a fusion of Red and Blue. Red for the warmth and passion of an artistic adventure, blue for the originality of the rational mind, giving Indigo, the symbol of creativity and intellectualism.”

Since its launch in 1971, MoodI has grown to achieve its current status of Asia's largest college cultural festival and is currently in its 43rd edition. Some historic events over the years have been -

• The French Canadian rock band Simple Plan came exclusively to India to perform in Mood Indigo 2012.
• Australian Progressive Rock Band Karnivool's first performance in India in 2011.
• The first ever Sumo Wrestling match in India in Mood Indigo 2010.
• Swedish metal band Katatonia’s first Asian performance in Mood Indigo 2010
• English band Porcupine Tree’s first Indian concert in Mood Indigo 2009
• The Ensiferum concert in 2008 which was the first international night of Mood Indigo

Events

Pronites at Mood Indigo are one of the major attractions for youth all over the nation

Pronites

‘Pronites’ or ‘Pro-shows’ is that section of Mood Indigo that features well known national and international artists in all the realms of music viz Rock, Sufi, Classical and Bollywood. Mood Indigo Pronites have staged international bands like Simple Plan in 2012, Karnivool in 2011, Katatonia in 2010, Porcupine Tree in 2009 and Ensiferumin 2008. Pronites has also hosted performers like music legend Asha Bhosle (once with music director R D Burman in 1981 and again in 2010), Jagjit Singh, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Amit Trivedi, Kailash Kher, Salim-Sulaiman, Mohit Chauhan, Raghu Dixit, KK, Lucky Ali, Amit Kumar, Kavita Seth, Pankaj Udhas, Raghav Sachar, Agnee- the band and Javed Ali. Classical maestros like Pt.Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt.Bhimsen Joshi, Pt.Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Vikku Vinayakram, Pt. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, sitar maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Manna Dey and Taufiq Qureshi have performed here as well.

Mood Indigo has also been a host to many Indian rock and fusion bands like Indus Creed, Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Antaragni, Zero and Thermal and a Quarter, and international bands like Canadian band Q.E.D. Artists of the Fusion genre like Louis Banks, Niladri Kumar, Sivamani and Alms for Shanti have also performed at Mood Indigo. Pronites also organises Livewire, which is India's biggest rock band competition and has been a launchpad for bands such as Parikrama, Zero, Vayu and many more, who are now big names in the Indian music industry. Headliners in the past have included Motherjane, Indus Creed and Sceptre. In Mood Indigo 2012 over 200 bands from across the country participated in the competition, with eliminations being held in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Gangtok.

Competitions

Competitions at Mood Indigo have been the battle royale for college contingents from across the country. Competitions cover all the genres of art - Dramatics, Literary arts, Fine arts, Music, Dance, Visual arts and Film and Media.

These competitions have had well known personalities associated with them over the years. Finalists of the dance competition 'Dancing with the Stars' performed for an audience of 3500 and were judged by Shahid Kapoor and Rajiv Surty. The finalists of the music event 'Singing with the Stars' were judged by singers Kavita Seth, Meiyang Chang and Shibani Kashyap. Over 50 bands perform in Mantra, the Hindi band competition, for an audience of over 8000. The Western acoustic band competition sees participation of over 50 bands from all over India. Aagaaz the street play competition saw participation in huge numbers, in its third edition, in Mood Indigo 2012, with the winners getting a chance to perform at the National Center for Performing Arts.

The performing arts competition (One Act) called 'Third Bell' has had the history of judges like Anupam Kher, Himani Shivpuri, Shobha Khote, Amit Behl, Piyush Mishra and Lalit Parimoo. It consists of events like Situational acting, Narrative Mime, Stand-Up comedy and Short Skit. The winners of this competition are also given a chance to perform at the National Center of Performing Arts. Its stage has played the good host to legends like Amjad Khan and Mani Ratnam.

Khalsa college in finals of third bell - the theatre competition at Mood Indigo

For people proficient at Speaking and expressing their views, events like National Debate were held giving them the opportunity to compete with the best. Niche speaking events like Jam and Extempore have participation consisting of people who are more proficient at informal speaking.

Omniscience, the quizzing competition of the festival has big quizzing events based on Entertainment, General Awareness, Business and Sports hosted by eminent Quiz Masters. In 2012, Omniscience had multi-city elims in Kolkata, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai to pick up the young geniuses.

Fine arts and Creative writing at Mood Indigo sees a variety of events and workshops such as 3-D surfacing, soap carving, vegetable carving, sponge modelling, painting on a canvas, book cover designing, Rangoli art, wax carving and Charcoal drawing etc.

In 2012, the film making event, 'Director's cut' saw a record participation from across the college fraternity. The director of the winning entry and the runner up were given a chance to produce a short film each with Shaitan fame Bejoy Nambiar and best 2 actors of the top two movies of Director’s Cut with their professional crew.

Horizons

Started in 1988, Horizons is a department of Mood Indigo which plans, conceptualizes and executes various unique and unconventional events, shows, exhibitions and workshops. Horizons covers a plethora of genres through its events viz. Theatre, Music, Dance, Fashion and Literature.

In 2012, Mood Indigo hosted more than 150 foreign artists from all over the world, thanks to Horizons. It includes celebrated artists like "master of unusuals" Canada comedian Michel Lauzière, Irish sword swallower Murray Molloy, American fire artist Jason Divad, Monsieur Gusto, The Chancy Brothers, Wacky Chad and many more.

Mood Indigo 2012 had many globally reckoned artists to entertain spectators.

The International Music Festival, started in 2009, has brought to MI an assortment of performers like the French group Moriarty, Fire On Dawson from Germany, Norwegian band Indian Core, Swedish performer Meja and the Glass Duo from Poland. Mood Indigo 2011 saw well known bands like Akasha from Malaysia and Caladh Nua from Ireland perform to a jam packed audience. Other shows in 2011 included a performance by Gamblerz crew from South Korea and Entertainer of the year, Jean Francois from Las Vegas. Vogue, the fashion competition has also been associated with prestigious names like Wendell Rodricks, Neeta Lulla, Marc Robinson, Kulraj Randhawa. The year 2010 also saw, for the first time in India, two world champions showcasing the legendary Japanese art of Sumo Wrestling at Mood Indigo.

Other shows include the Korean break dance troupe B-boyz, circus performance by Europe’s Nofit State Circus, Tararam Israeli trash band that performed at the Athens Olympics, Adam Winrich the whip-cracker, Sabri brothers of the Main Hoon Na fame and many other renowned artists. Horizons has also hosted 4 time Guinness World Record holder Victor Rubilar, acclaimed street magician Chris Korn, Cile the one-man-band, magic show by P C Sorcar, Sudarshan Patnaik’s sand sculptures, Hasya Kavi Sammelan, puppetry show, synchronized swimming and diving, and Film Fest.

It also includes events like panel discussions and interactive sessions with panelists and speakers like Prakash Jha, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shankar Mahadevan, Mahesh Bhatt, Pankaj Pachauri, Ramachandra Guha, Rohit Shetty and exhibitions of gramophones, photographs, famous newspaper archives and others. In 2010 an exhibition cum stunt show of the Harley Davidson bikes was also organised. Workshops conducted range from theatre, jazz, waltz, salsa, belly dancing, star gazing, kickboxing, lasso twirling, photography, latte art to eating with chopsticks.

Worldfest

The contingent from Romania in Global Mela of Mood Indigo 2012

Worldfest is one of its kind initiative by Mood Indigo which brings in the youth from abroad to the festival to interact with Indian youth. Worldfest was initiated in Mood Indigo 2011 with four foreign countries viz. Poland, Spain, Indonesia and Turkey. The aim of Worldfest is to foster cultural exchange between the youth of different countries. The foreign troupes interact with Indian audiences via cultural performances, cooking native food and participation in competition and informal activities.

In 2012, Worldfest turned into a bigger concept of Global Mela in which countries of Italy, Japan, Romania, Serbia and Sri Lanka exhibited their culture, food and sports. Representatives from these countries participated in the Mood Indigo Carnival, first of its kind by any college festival.

Informals

Informals is a department that caters to the fun-loving and thrill-seeking participants of Mood Indigo. We organize wacky and spontaneous events which do not require any prior preparation from the people. Informals' motto is to keep everybody entertained. And so, a multitude of activities are conducted for the same.

An integral part of Informals is the Adventure Zone. It includes activities such as Zorbing, Paintball, Quad Biking, Hot air ballooning, Aqua Games, Laser Tag etc. Each year a different set of adrenaline pumping activities are arranged for the masses. Also, Informals arranges fun events such as Baraat Dance, Street Races, Treasure Hunt etc. for the frolic and amusement of the crowd. Lounges are set up in various places across the institute for people people can relax, interact and enjoy the calmness. Games such as Snooker Pool Table and Board Games are present for recreation in the Lounges. Mystery solving events such as Crime Scene Investigation, Role Playing Games have thousands of people racking their brains to solve the puzzle and emerge victorious. Informals at Mood Indigo has something for everyone.

21 Dec, 2012 was foreboded as the Dooms Day by many believers of Maya calendar. So, Mood Indigo decided to celebrate Doomsday Party with India's best DJ Lloyd and give the youth supposedly their last chance to have fun. Another highlight of Informals has been 'GRIND'. What started off as a poolside party has now grown by leaps and bounds. Professional DJs such as DJ Akbar, DJ Suketu and DJ LLoyd with 30000 watts of electrifying music made sure that the crowd danced till they dropped. 'GRIND' also saw Romanian pop act Akcent drive the people of Mumbai crazy. 'She’s Got The Look', the beauty pageant is also organised in search of the ultimate beauty for the fashion industry involving 15000 participants. Informals also organised a 4km cross-country race and a 3x3 Basketball game for the sport enthusiasts.

Well known faces from the entertainment industry like Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Pallavi Joshi, Sandeepa Dhar, Tanisha, RJ Mallishka have also been a part of the jury for personality hunts like “Mood Indigo’s Most Wackiest” and “aM I Talented? “. Film actors Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma were the Guests of Honour at the distinguished 'Mr. & Ms. Mood Indigo' in 2012.

Artists and Celebrities

Anushka Sharma and Imran Khan at Mood Indigo 2012

Mood Indigo has hosted numerous artists and famous personalities over the years with many big names and organisations being associated with it. Pronites has brought many renowned singers like Asha Bhosle, R D Burman, Jagjit Singh, Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Salim Sulaiman, Amit Trivedi, Kailash Kher, Mohit Chauhan, KK, Lucky Ali, Amit Kumar, Kavita Seth, Pankaj Udhas, Raghav Sachar, Javed Ali, Louis Banks, Niladri, Sivamani and Alms for Shanti. Notable names of the classical genre like Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt.Bhimsen Joshi, Pt.Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Vikku Vinayakram, Pt. Rajan and Sajan Mishra, sitar maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangashand, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Manna Dey and Taufiq Qureshi have also graced MI with their performances. Rock concerts and Livewire shows have staged International bands like Porcupine Tree, Ensiferum, Katatonia, QED, Thermal and a Quarter and Indian bands like Indus Creed, Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Antaragni, and Zero.

Various celebrities have come to Mood Indigo for promoting their upcoming projects. In 2012, Anushka Sharma and Imran Khan awarded the winners of Mr. & Ms. MI competition of the festival and promoted their the then upcoming movie Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. On the Bollywood nite of the festival Chitrangada Singh and Arjun Rampal came to promote Inkaar.

Panel discussion Team for Mood Indigo 2010

The events and competitions of MI have also had the presence of eminent personalities like Fashion Designers Wendell Rodricks, Neeta Lulla and Marc Robinson, Dramatics stalwarts Anupam Kher, Himani Shivpuri, Shobha Khote, Dolly Thakore and Amit Bhel, Director Subhash Ghai, Dance masters Shiamak Davar and Terrence Lewis, and singers Kavita Seth, Shibani Kashyap and Meiyang Chang. Mood Indigo has also brought a variety of artists and entertainers both international and indigenous like Sumo Wrestlers, musicians Moriarty, Fire On Dawson, band Indian Core, Meja, the Glass Duo, break dance troupe Bboyz, Nofit state circus, Tararam(trash band), Adam Winrich whip-cracker, Sabri brothers, Victor Rubilar, Chris Korn, Francesa Cassio, Moneybrother, Pandit Chitresh Das and Jadon Samples, Cile – One man band, Pedro Tochas, Muntaner Duo and Sudarshan Patnaik to Mumbai.

The Panel Discussion has had popular names like Prakash Jha, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shankar Mahadevan, Mahesh Bhatt and Pankaj Pachauri as panelists. This festival has also had its fair share of celebrities in attendance with some names being actors Kabir Bedi, Shahid Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan, Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Neha Dhupia, Sanjay Suri, Shankar Mahadevan, Kavita Seth, Harsha Bhogle and Lalit Parimoo.

Live Your Passion

Vogue, Fashion Show @ Mood Indigo 2009

Live Your Passion or LYP are competitions of Mood Indigo that provide an opportunity to the young enthusiastic participants to live their passion and make their dream come true. Some major opportunities of LYP have been Vogue- The War of the Fashionistas where the Best designer gets an internship under fashion designers like Wendell Rodricks, Neeta Lulla, JJ Valaya or Marc Robinson and the best Male and Female models get a representation contract by some of the reputed agencies like Launchpad Media Services and also get their portfolios done by experts like Shari Academy. In 2010 She’s Got the Look - the online face hunt had the top 3 winning entries get a direct entry into the top 80 of the Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pageant.

Upasana,Classical Dance Competition MOod Indigo 2010

For the music enthusiasts, LYP has competitions like Livewire the English rock band competition where the winning band got a chance to record their own album ( 7 tracks), mixing and mastering of entire album, free of cost at T-Series. The album will be promoted on the official youtube channel of the music company. The winners of Mantra the Hindi band competition in 2012 got the chance to feature in music video produced by T-Series and once in a lifetime opportunity to perform at South Asian Band Festival, 2013 in Delhi. In Swaranjali- the classical music competition the top 4 winners got lucrative scholarship from prestigious Indian Music Academy.

The Dramatics genre had events like Aagaaz -the street play competition and "Third Bell" - the stage play competition. Top teams of both the competitions get a chance to perform at renowned National Centre of Performing Arts.

The dance competitions at Mood Indigo 2012 witnessed an overwhelming response from across the nation. Winners of Indigo Saga - the themed group dance competition and Beat the Beat- the western group dance competition got fat cash prizes and free entry to celebrated Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts. The bollywood group dance competition - Picture Abhi Baaki Haiobserved some fine bollywood moves from budding choreographers of the industry. People usually think that youth are crazy only about hip hop and b-boying. Mood Indigo shattered this perception by showing to the world the finest of the fine classical elegance drawn from all parts of nation in solo classical dance competition Nrityangan.

Director's cut saw a record participation from across the college fraternity. The director of the winning entry and the runner up were given a chance to produce a short film each with Shaitan fame Bejoy Nambiar and best 2 actors of the top two movies of Director’s Cut with their professional crew. The winners of the creative writing and sketching competition - Supersketch got an internship in Youth Incorporated Magazine and a chance to sketch the lead villain in Raj Comics respectively.

Social Cause

Thalassemia (Mood Indigo 2012)

Students sporting their support for the cause.

'Thalassemia - it's bloody serious' was the name of the social cause campaign which was launched by Mood Indigo 2012. Thalassemia is a terminal disorder which requires the patient to undergo a blood transfusion every month putting his/ her life at stake. A thalassemia minor patient is completely safe. However the child of two Thalassemia minor patients has a 25% chance of being a Thalassemia major. A thalassemia testing camp was started in places. The initial camp saw a total of 1468 people getting tested in a matter of only 9 hours. More such camps were set up in colleges and a record number of people were tested for thalassemia. This novel cause was widely supported by everyone. Report 1 Report 2

Sparsh (Mood Indigo 2011)

Sparsh was aimed at betterment of underprivileged children through campaigns and awareness drives. The core committee of Mood Indigo 2011 felt the need of uplifting the younger generation of the country so that they could build the immediate future. Mood Indigo tied up the an NGO, Make A Difference (MAD) who helped the core committee in logistics and reaching a wider section of the underprivileged children community. Mood Indigo organizers went to slums and interacted with slum children, trying to understand their problems and solve them if possible. The initiative received widespread coverage from the media.

Aagaaz (Mood Indigo 2010)

Aagaaz, Street Plays at Mood Indigo 2010

With Aagaaz(meaning a beginning), the Countrywide Social Awareness Campaign, Mood indigo aimed to address not one but a series of problems from the declining status of women in the society to the increasing frustration in the country’s teen population, from the oppressed child workers to the much promoted corruptionists. Street play, besides being a regular feature of competitions at MI, had the potential to be the medium to raise a strong voice among the youth. Street Play has its own unique and spectacular way of putting forward social issues.

Khoon Chala (Mood Indigo 2008 and 2009)

Blood Donation drive, which is the first of its kind and enormity ever to be taken up by a college. This initiative is focused at the lack of blood in blood banks and hence the silent deaths of those who are not provided well enough. The name of this campaign, to go with the collegiate spirit, has been aptly put as 'Khoon Chala '. The mission was to create awareness amongst the students about blood donation. The 'Khoon Chala' initiative started before the festival. Mood Indigo spread the message amongst the youth that they should donate blood thru street plays in 30 colleges and 7 cineplexes in Mumbai and screened a short film on the same to create awareness. Due to the seriousness of the initiative and also to the overwhelming response it was continued in Mood Indigo 09. Mood Indigo became the first ever college festival in the country to conduct largest and successful blood donation camp by students by collecting more than 3500 units of blood in the span of two years.

Sponsors & Past Associates

Mood Indigo has attracted sponsorships from various corporations due to huge participation of students from all over India. Many prominent names have been associated with many events in Mood Indigo including Tata Photon, Tata Docomo, Colgate, Parle, State Bank of India, Canara Bank, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, PVR, Levi's, BlackBerry, Cisco, Pantaloons Femina, Maybelline, McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, Subway (restaurant), GATSBY, Limca Book of Records, Go-Jiyo, Braingain Magazine.

The media sector has seen several names like Hindustan Times, Times of India, Bombay Times, MTV, UTV, Channel V, Radio Mirchi, DSN media, DNA, Red FM, 9x. Also Mood Indigo has had associations with Wendell Rodricks, Shiamak Davar Dance Academy, NCPA, Whistling Woods, USA Sumo Association, the Israeli Embassy, Embassy of Canada, Poland, Korea, Ireland and The Swedish Institute . With a heavy footfall of over 88,000 in 4-days, association with Mood Indigo is a matter of prestige and is reflected in the range of sponsorships it attracts.

Media and Publicity

Mood Indigo is one of the most widely publicised and covered college festival in India, receiving extensive coverage by all sectors of media. In print media leading newspapers like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, DNA, The Economic Times and also several local dailies cover Mood Indigo throughout the year. In electronic media, Mood Indigo is covered by Red Fm, Radio Mirchi and prominent tv networks like 9X Media. Over the years festival has been covered in several youth centric shows like MTV Wassup!, UTV Campus Attack. Some of the popular events covered on television were Sumo Wrestling On ESPN and Sahara, Livewire by ZEE Music and Shahid Kapoor by NDTV. Through DSN media Mood Indigo's advertisements were shown throughout the country. In 2010 Amit Trivedi’s concert in that year’s edition of MI was part of the official Udaan (2010 film) DVD.

Organisation

The entire organising team of Mood Indigo 2013

Mood Indigo as an entirely student run non-profit organisation was established in 1971. The organising team consists of students with the hierarchy order as Overall Coordinators, Core Group Members, Coordinators and Organisers. The Mood Indigo team is headed by 2 Overall Coordinators working in collaboration with the twenty two Core Group members who head the various departments such as Pronites, Horizons, Competitions, Creatives, Informals, Marketing, Media, LYP, Publicity, Services, Hospitality, Accounts and Food & Beverages. The Coordinators are in charge of the various events and are assisted by the organisers in their endeavours. The core team is constituted early in the year and works over a period of about nine months in preparation of the 4 day long festival. With a strength of over 700, the organising team conceptualizes all the events and execute them with ultimate perfection and thus creates Asia’s largest college cultural festival.

The Mood Indigo team is composed of students of all years of the institute shouldering the entire responsibility of the festival with no assistance from any event management company or professionals. Mood Indigo has had a legacy of organisers, Amongst the leading names are Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Mr. Anil Kumar, Mr. Adil Zainulbhai, Mr. Atul Kanagat, Mr. Anand Sivakumaran and many more.

MI Over The Years

File:9.1MI73 symbol and logotype.jpg

Mood Indigo 1973 Symbol and Logo

• 1971 - It saw the beginning of Mood Indigo with a low budget of ₹ 5,000, which was contributed partly by the IIT Bombay Gymkhana and the rest by advertisements in the Mood Indigo brochure.

• 1973 - Mood Indigo as a purely student-run non-profit organization was set up in this year. Since this year, the organization of Mood Indigo has been in the hands of the students of the institute.

• 1976 - The first “huge” MI which has led to the misconception that MI started in 1976. It was due to the efforts put in by Adil Zainulbhai (presently McKinsey India Managing Director) and Atul Kanagat (a senior member in McKinsey India) that MI'76 outperformed previous editions of MI by a distance; despite the National Emergency prevailing at the time.

• 1981 - MI'81 saw the widely celebrated duo of Asha Bhosle and R D Burman perform at the Indian Music Night. Classical Concerts, Rock Shows, Bonfires and Jamming that went on till dawn were amongst the major highlights of MI'81.

• 1991 - MI'91 had Kumar Sanu as its star attraction,who blazed the stage on 7th Dec 1991

• 1992 - After a series of unfortunate events as the Ayodhya incident and the Bombay riots, MI'92 took place in March 1993 - just a week after the Bombay bomb blasts. A quote from Mr. Anand Sivakumaran, then Overall Coordinator of MI, says “It was supposed to happen in December, but Ayodhya happened instead - so we postponed it to January. Then the Bombay riots took place - scores of people wanted to cancel it - so we postponed it even further. Finally we had it in March, believe it or not, just one week after the Bombay bomb blasts took place. Half the Core Group members weren’t there. The entire team must have consisted of thirty people (Wow !). Live Wire went on till 5am. I shall never forget those five days - there were ego problems and fights before MI. But those 5 days we just worked and worked. Thirty people did the work of three hundred.” Amongst some very famous stories about MI'92 are - "Close Up and Colgate were the main sponsors. That’s like Coke and Pepsi sponsoring an event together. Mind blowing!"

• 1997 – It was in this period that MI started becoming huge with big amounts of cash pouring in. From a humble sum of around 5 lakhs in 1993, the budget exploded to around 24 lakhs in 1997. MI‘97 was bigger by far than any other Bombay College Festival.

• 1998 - The theme for MI '98 was "Bombayed". Indian classical music aficionados got to listen to the likes of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Ustad Zakir Hussain. Amongst other major events that took place at MI'98 were a workshop by Annu Kapoor and by eminent cartoonists like Unny and Sabu and a spectacular display of pyrotechnics (courtesy Wizcraft). Ever since, Mood Indigo, the Cultural Festival has grown in stature and popularity, attracting visitors and participants from other parts of the country.

  

  Pirate Ship from Mood Indigo 2009

• 2009- The 2009 edition of MI was decked with the theme “Pirates” and brought to India for the first time, the renowned band Porcupine Tree. It also had performances by Parikrama, Alms for Shanti and concerts by the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Manna Dey. This edition also showcased 4 time Guinness World Record holder Victor Rubilar, French band Moriarty and Swedish performer Meja. Famous sand sculptor Sudarshan Patnaik also exhibited his skills.The social drive of Khoon Chala was also continued this year.

• 2010 – Desi Tadka- Mood Indigo went really big in 2010: featuring three-time world sumo champion Byambajav Ulambayar and former world champion Naranbat Gankhuyag. MI 2010 also had Asha Bhosle for the classical nite. For the first time, Livewire went national. Mood Indigo 2010 witnessed the likes Katatonia, Indus Creed and Amit Trivedi. The International Music Festival this year shined with the Indo-German rock band Fire On Dawson, French percussionist Minino Garay, Glass harp musicians Glass Duo and the fusion band KarmetiK. Also there was an interactive session with Ramchandra Guha. And an enthralling Harley Davidson Bike exhibition.

Graffiti by German artists at the Open Air Theatre for MI 2011

• 2011 - 'The Wild West' was the theme of Mood Indigo 2011 with Spike and McHat as the mascots. Karnivool, the Australian progressive rock band performed in India for the first time at Mood Indigo 2011. The festival also witnessed concerts by Agnee, Raghu Dixit and KK at the Open Air Theater. Worldfest, an initiative to bring together the youth of the world was conceptualized and initiated in MI 2011. Mood Indigo 2011 also made its name in the Limca Book of Records for most number of international artists in a college festival. Other performances included Gamblerz, Gong Myoung from Korea and a plethora of musical and street performances.

• 2012 - Mood Indigo 2012 was themed on 'The Tribal Tryst' and promoted tribal culture and tribal practices which have gotten endangered over the years. MI 2012 also included a social initiative called 'Hakuna Matata -Spread a Smile'. Simple Plan, the Canadian punk rock band headlined Mood Indigo, 2012. It was the only punk rock concert in the country in 2012. It also hosted the first international carnival in India with 6 countries participating in it. It also had a plethora of stars who visited the fest for promoting their film. Anushka Sharma, Imraan Khan, Arjun Rampal, Chitrangada Singh and many more. The concerts saw performances by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Talavya, Simple Plan, Karsh Kale collectiv and Salim Sulaiman. There was also a doomsday DJ party where DJ LLoyd, India's best dance DJ made the crowd dance to feet thumping numbers.

External links

• Moodi.org - Official website
• IIT Bombay
• Mood Indigo on Facebook
• Mood Indigo's channel on YouTube
• Mood Indigo on Twitter