An intimate evening of Bollywood music, poetry and reflection is striking an emotional chord with audiences across the country, as Bollywood Candlelight by Navin Kundra continues its UK tour following a string of sold-out performances.
Produced by North East based CIA Events, the candlelit experience has already played to packed audiences in London, Newcastle and Birmingham, with its latest stop in Leeds drawing an equally warm response.
The tour now continues to Leicester, Manchester and Glasgow, but organisers say its success is being measured by more than ticket sales. Audience members have spoken of leaving the concerts feeling moved, uplifted and, for some, unexpectedly emotional.
Described as an intimate night of live music, poetry and prayer, the show sees singer-songwriter Navin Kundra perform alongside his musicians surrounded by more than 2,000 candles within the atmospheric surroundings of churches and former places of worship.
For Kundra, choosing such venues was deliberate.
“When you walk into a church, there is something divine and spiritual,” he said. “I wanted to create an experience where, from the moment you walk in, it takes you into a different world.”
At the heart of the concept is a desire to encourage audiences to switch off from the constant noise and speed of everyday life.
Kundra said modern life, and particularly social media, had changed the way people consumed almost everything, including emotion.
“Life right now is so fast. We sit on social media and we don’t even pay attention any longer. We see a video and sometimes swipe past within the first five or ten seconds.
“So I wanted to say: listen. We need to slow down, breathe, feel and just sit in our own emotions. Music has a beautiful way of bringing people together.”
The performances blend much-loved Bollywood songs, including music from the 1990s, with Kundra’s own poetry from his debut book, The Light Within.
The setting has also added another dimension to the performances, with Kundra thanking the churches which have opened their doors to a celebration rooted in South Asian music and culture.
“I know the venues we have chosen are places of worship and I am so grateful that the churches have been so welcoming, inviting us in to share our music and culture,” he said.
“I wanted it to be an evening of music and poetry.”
That combination appears to have resonated particularly strongly with those attending the Leeds performance at Left Bank.
Debbani Ghosh, chief executive of the Asian Blind Association, described the evening as “truly enchanting”.
“The night was filled with his poetry, soulful music and 90s Bollywood songs, set in the tranquil, meditative Left Bank Centre,” she said.
“The night was a beautiful reminder to seek the light within ourselves through his poetry, which also beautifully emphasised that making peace with anything is not a weakness but a matter of bravery, encouraging us to look inward for our true light. And no one can take that away.
“Loved every moment of the concert.”
For Sunjeeda Hanif, founder of charity Women’s Whisperer, the Leeds performance held particular significance. It was the first concert she had ever attended and she brought along some of the women supported by her organisation.
She said opportunities to experience events such as the candlelight concert could have a much deeper impact than simply providing an evening out.
“Opportunities like these are so impactful,” she said. “Navin Kundra touched everybody’s hearts that night.
“His voice was soul-touching and beautiful, and his own selected poetry read from his debut book The Light Within made everyone emotional.
“It was so amazingly therapeutic. Just single words like ‘enough’ were so powerful. We were transported to another zone, just listening was healing.”
For organiser Kam Chera, it is those reactions which have made the success of the tour particularly rewarding.
He said audiences were not simply turning up to watch a performance, but were connecting with the meaning behind it.
“I am delighted with the response,” he said. “People are not just coming and being entertained; they are really feeling the soul of the event.
“They are leaving feeling empowered and connecting with it in a therapeutic, almost cathartic way.”
Chera said he hoped the success of the tour could pave the way for more experiences which use arts and culture to bring people together while creating space for reflection.
“These shows bring people together, but they also allow us to deal with our emotions and find some escapism and therapy through Navin’s soul-enriching performance,” he said.
“Navin is a very talented artist and great to work with. We are now really looking forward to taking the experience to Leicester, Manchester and Glasgow.”
In an age of short-form videos, endless scrolling and increasingly fleeting attention spans, the success of the tour suggests there remains an appetite for something altogether slower.
For a few hours, audiences are being invited to put away the distractions, sit among the glow of a thousand candles and simply listen – to the music, the words and perhaps, most importantly, themselves.
