150 artists to travel with King Khan: Promoter Sood.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: In a very short period, Manish Sood, the founder of the Washington-based Intense Entertainment, has become among the biggest promoters of Bollywood events in the country. In the past year, he has brought to the nation’s capital a number of A-Listers from India, including Shreya Goshal and Sonu Nigam. In an interview with The American Bazaar, Sood spoke about the upcoming SLAM tour of Shahrukh Khan in North America, which makes a stopover in the Washington, DC, area on September 21.
Excerpts from the interview:
Tell us more about the SLAM concert.
The full form of SLAM is Sound Light Action Music. It is a tour to promote Sharukh’s upcoming movie Happy New Year, which is scheduled to hit the box office on the day of Diwali. The star cast of the film, Sharukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Malaika Arora Khan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani, Vivian and others all are coming to the US along with the producer, director Farah Khan and singers Yo Yo Honey Singh and Kanika Kapoor. There are a total of 150 artists coming which includes dancers, make-up artist, hair dressers, sound and light engineers etc. This would be one of the best shows you would see in your life.
Is it fair to say that SLAM is going to be the biggest Bollywood show to come to Washington, DC?
It’s not only fair, but it’s the fact. A show of such a magnitude has never happened in our area before.
Is the Washington, DC, market big enough for a show like SLAM?
The Washington, DC metro area has expanded over the years; the South Asian population has grown tremendously over the past decade. We are also expecting people from different regions and states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Atlanta, Florida etc. to come down for the show. There are also people flying in from the Middle East and Europe too. I am expecting at least 15 to 20 thousand people in the audience.
In the past 12 months, you have promoted some very big names from Bollywood, including Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam and Mika Singh. There was a time when promoters complaining that entertainment shows are not making money. But that apparently is not the case…
This business is like any other business. No business guarantees you profits. Yes, this is a high risk business as we invest on humans, but like all other business it has its pros and cons. The thing that I had noticed was most of the people who were into this business had other main business and this was their secondary business or hobby/passion. When anything you do is not a priority then it tends to lose interest or you cannot give it your 100% and thus you could lose money.
I have been lucky till now as this is my main business and both my wife and myself tend to put in one hundred percent of our efforts in this. I’m blessed by a very strong team and some good supporters and friends, who work very hard to make all my shows a good and a successful show.
What are some of the other shows you are planning in the near future?
After SLAM which is on September 21, I have Dandiya Raas with Falguni Pathak on October 10, then Salim Suleman live in concert on October 31 and we end this year with our New Year’s Eve party on December 31. We have already signed up concerts for next year too. I will reveal them later as I do not want to give you too many names.
Tell us more about Intense Entertainment. In addition to promoting shows, you are also expanding to other areas.
Yes, we have expanded in other areas too. IntenseDMV was launched in July of 2013. This is a marketing portal where we help small business to market themselves to South Asians living in the Tri-State area. We have launched Intense Travels that gets you the best fares on airline tickets, hotels, cars rentals, cruises, vacation packages etc.
We just launched IntenseDMV Radio. It’s a APP for both Android and IPhone where you can listen to Live RJ’s, live music, talk shows, news, juicy gossip, health and beauty and much more.
By God’s grace we have proved to the local public that if we take up a project we would do it right and will give our supporters and audience the most benefits that we can.
2 Comments
Beware of Manish Sood and Deepa Shahani. Both cheat people for money. They have cheated many innocent people in the past but now their misdeeds are surfacing up. Don’t be their next victim. Manish Kutheala was previous name of Manish Sood but he changed it to hide his dirty past. They talk in a very sweet and convincing way to gain trust of people and take their money for sake of selling services or investment and with promise of BIG returns. The service is never delivered and money is gone for good. Many people have lost their hard earned money. BEWARE ! DO NOT BE THEIR NEXT VICTIM !
clitrutiph@throwam.com