EQ shoot..!

It was on 30th, we had our last practice, the rehearsal, or whatever we call it, before the main competition. But the practice was not that hard cuz we've already practiced the song for about a hundred times. We did it for 2 hrs and came back home early. The main shoot was on 2nd of November. Before writing about my EQ2 shoot experience, lemme name out the members of our band. The band comprises of:

Male Vocals --> Prakash and Praveen
Female Vocals --> Rehka (She really got an awesome singing voice)
Saxophone --> Janet
Drums --> Vinod
Guitar --> Myself
Keyboard --> Pughazh
Pads --> Balaji


On 27th, we went to purchase our costumes. We started by 8 in the morning and reached T-Nagar at 11. As it was Saturday, it was more crowded than any other day. We wriggled through the crowd somehow and got near Saravana stores. The streets were so crowded that it took 20mins for us to cross a few meters. Not after half an hour of walk, it started drizzling and we were all drenched. We got into the building and bought our clothes. It was so huddle up that it took 3hrs for the purchase. We came out of the building at 5 and rushed to catch the train. I came back home soon with the dress and the cold. The next time if i want to buy some dress, i never ever will go T-Nagar again. Shit..! It was one place where i see 25% of Tamil Nadu's population rush for the purchase.



I got a call the previous day of the shoot, that confirmed my timing, place to get assembled and stuff, from my friend. I told everyone that evening and planned to assemble near perambur. We reached the destination (Prasad studios near AVM) by 12:30p.m as it was said that our program was scheduled at 1 p.m. Later, our shoot was put up at 6p.m. Every college had a lot of their college students who had come to cheer them. But we hardly had 3 to 4 along with us. Ram and sayan (my brother) came along with us. I called guru and vijay to come as we were in need of audience. They showed up at 3. Some of my classmates also came and we were waiting for our call. There were a lot of students assembled, and most of them hardly were single. Never a frump was seen. All dressed up well that clearly showed their asset. It was nice ogling around, grope about the whole place, getting conspicuous and wandering in search of beautiful bints.



It was 5:30 and we were called for the make-up. We had everything done and i was waiting for the call. We were gabbing outside with friends when surprisingly i saw the man who taught me guitar. I actually discontinued from my guitar class cuz i was'nt satisfied with his teaching. I found the same guy sitting right next to me. He doubtfully called me up and asked "Is that you..?". Darn..! got caught up with him for 15mins. Then somehow manage to get rid of him and went to my make-up room where my team was waiting.



Our competitors were Sathyabama and Jerusalam. The order goes like this- Sathyabama-> Jaya-> Jerusalam. The juries were Pop Shalini and a famous dancer, a thingummy. Sathyabama came out after their music performance. It was our turn to show up. Before getting in, we prayed for a minute and built confidence within us. We got into the hall. It was a huge set beautifully built. We got on stage and arranged our instruments. The technicians were checking the sound level, cameraman was adjusting the automated cameras, and the whole place was very busy. I was a bit nervous. While i was tuning my guitar, one of the two compere asked me "What song..?". I said that it's our own composition. With an optimistic smile, she wished us good luck. Everything was ok and the camera was rolling. We started performing. While playing i saw shalini enjoying our song, and even the audience enjoying and cheering us. After the song, Shalini told that the song was awesome and awarded 9/10. The other judge awarded 8/10. Wow.! we were leading in the first round. I did'nt expect this and surprisingly, we won in the first round. The only thing that was missing in our band was that we did'nt enjoy or move rhythmically. Anyway, we were awarded good mark.



After the first round, the results were announced and we topped the chart. We were so happy and everyone around came and wished us for our own composition (seems like everyone liked it.!). The second round was DANCING. Sathyabama went in, came out with a score of 10/10 from both the judges. They really were like professional dancers. Our guys did well, but the judges were not so impressed like how they felt for sathyabama. Its obvious for the judges to give low marks for our medium performance after seeing a stage blowing performance from sathyabama. We got 7/10 from both the judges. We were disappointed about the score. Even jerusalam did well and scored good marks from the judges.



The third round was VARIETY. First was sathyabama. I still could'nt able to figure out what actually sathyabama did for VARIETY. Their skit was like this -> There were five girls standing in the middle of the stage. After the music was played, everyone started a cat walk on the ramp, almost touched the five corners of the stage, came back to were they were standing. They did this for three to four times. When asked, they explained some unrelated concept and got 8/10 from both the judges. WTF.? Thatz not a VARIETY man.! When compared, we were far better than them. We performed some martial arts for our variety, something that related. We scored 8/10 from both the judges. It's very clear that Sathyabama won the competition, we were second and Jerusalam at third.



I was waiting outside and consoling our dance troupe cuz they felt that they were the reason for not winning. One of the staff called me inside and told me to wait until i was called. It was subtle. I could'nt understand why i was called. I called the staff and asked her the reason. She said It was for giving me THE BEST PERFORMANCE award. Gosh.! i got goosebumps all over. An award.? for me.? Jeez.. I got that from Pop Shalini. That moment was a very special and i got that award for my composition. Its not actually an award, but the title goes THE BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD. That really meant a lot to me. One of the compere asked me to talk a few words, but i somehow evaded just by saying something that i could'nt remember. I was nervous at that time. Guru and vijay did'nt know that i got this award. I came out and everyone congratulated, even the compere. I went and congratulated the other two, who got the COOL DUDE and COOL DUDETTE awards. I was so happy that moment. Even if we could'nt able to get through the second round, we atleast managed to do the best of what we've practiced. That one positive thought made me strong.



It was 11p.m when we started from there. Ram, Vijay, Iyer, Guru, Vijay were some of my friends who stayed with us till the end. Me and sayan reached home at 12 sharp. It was so a different experience for me. That was the first time im participating in a TV show. I feel like this has built my confidence level a bit higher for my next music war. Waiting for this to see on tv..