'Please don’t stop the music', goes the refrain of a popular song, and this band, from Mumbai, certainly didn’t. Curry, a Mumbai-based music trio—Ashish Palanna, Ria D’Souza, and Kanasue Shetty—recently performed at a Tamil-Gujarati couple, Shriram and Priyanka's wedding celebration in Monaco. The couple wanted a desi vibe on their big day and asked the band to perform their favourite South Indian and Hindi covers. And safe to say, it was a complete blast!
What started as a candlelight dinner with ABBA tracks quickly transformed into a full-blown party featuring Bollywood bangers, as the trio seamlessly transitioned to dance tracks in English, Hindi, Gujarati, and South Indian languages, inviting baraatis, guests, and onlookers to join in the fun.
They sure know how to keep the vibe going, especially when it comes to an Indian wedding, and it’s also not the first time Curry has stirred up the fun; they performed at Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s sangeet in Udaipur this year, and they’ve been revving up their music while playing at other celebrations and private events. But this one sure pulled out all the stops as they tell Manifest all about the high-octane celebration, the challenges of playing at the ultra-luxe location (including seeking permission from the Prince of Monaco himself, they admit) and repertoire that spans 22 languages!
This extraordinary baraat was the last thing we expected to witness outside the iconic Monaco Casino! What started as a family having some fun quickly turned into a full-blown spectacle, with tourists and locals stopping in their tracks to see what the commotion was all about. Intentional or not, this couple gave Monaco a little taste of the Indian wedding madness. The casino wasn’t the only place attracting a crowd that day!
Knowing we had a sit-down dinner crowd, we kicked things off with 30 minutes of South Indian nostalgia before sneaking in an ABBA classic. And just like that, dinner turned into a dance party with English retro hits taking over! Of course, we also threw in a few Bollywood bangers for some of the family’s loveliest divas.
Every show begins with a planned setlist, but the magic lies in reading the room and adapting spontaneously to keep the audience engaged and having a great time. This performance was no different!
Yes! The couple and their friends went above and beyond to make this performance happen, from securing expensive licences to obtaining permission from the Prince himself! And then came the usual soundcheck challenges, which we’ve become all too familiar with. Thankfully, our sound engineer is a pro at keeping the chaos behind the scenes, so we can focus on putting on a great show.
We’ve grown up in Mangalore and have strong Carnatic roots. And our name says it all—where we blend all the Indian cultural flavours together. So we always kick off with a few songs that capture what Curry is all about. From there, we build on the brief we’re given about the audience, bringing in their favourite languages and genres while staying spontaneous and reading the room.
Instead of looking at regional songs separately, we bring them into cool mashups. And the languages all have distinct sounds and grooves—the idea is to make each flow into the other without losing the beat. And at weddings which often bring together different generations and cultures, we use our understanding of languages to resonate with everyone present.