The film Rock On!! is jammin’ at the box office as well as the music charts at number 1 and they both have gotten praise from critics and fans alike. As part of the promotional campaign, the stars of the film Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli and Luke Kenny went on a concert tour as the band from the film, Magik. On September 6th, the band played Delhi and a huge crowd of over 12,000 fans rocked out to the music of Rock On!!. The composers of the soundtrack Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa also performed for the cheering crowd.
Farhan told IANS, “It was unbelievable. They were 10-12,000 people come to see us. I can’t put the experience in words. Purab even performed his ‘I’ll Survive’ dance from the film. The kind of energy created by the audience has gone way beyond the film.”
Farhan performed even though he was sick with a 102-degree temperature and a bad sore throat. “This was absolutely crazy. And we got a first-hand feel of it on stage in Delhi. Watching the audiences’ spirit and enthusiasm, I didn’t mind going on stage even when I was so unwell.”
Arjun Rampal has been praised for his performance in Rock On!! and he was also a favorite at the concert with one fan saying, “It was really nice and I had a lot of fun. I really liked the performance of Arjun Rampal, I think he sings really well and it was so much fun watching him.” Rampal learned the guitar for his role as Joe Mascarenhas. “When I read the script it required me to learn all the musical instruments because Abhishek (the director of the film) was very clear that he wanted to do it realistically. I took guitar classes and it took me three months to pick up how to play guitar. All chords which I have played during this performance are the right chords,” he said. Purab and Luke also studied the drums and keyboard to make the film realistic. Farhan, who actually sang all his songs on the soundtrack also performed them live at the concert.
Another fan said, “This is the best concert I’ve ever attended. This movie made us groove to our own (Indian) songs for the first time or else we would have been jamming to only western songs.”
The crowd enthusiastically cheered for every number and even called for an encore after the show was over. So Magik plus S-E-L came back and performed the title number ‘Rock On’.
At the concert director Abhishek Kapoor said, “I am loving every moment of the evening. When I was making the movie, I was told Rock On!! won’t work out but you all have made it work.”
Farhan was ecstatic at the response to the show and said, “They’ve seen the film and they came to the concert to give us back something. The film has definitely brought the spotlight on Indi-rock.”
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Rock On!!, which is in theaters now!
