Event Details

Born in 2011, MonstrARTity Creative Community is a not-for-profit organization, based in Mississauga and committed to providing entertainment for the young and old alike. Ever expanding our productions, MonstrARTity is the producer of Bollywood Monster Mashup, which is the largest South Asian festival in Canada, as well as the team behind the award-winning Monster Rock Orchestra show.

This application is for “2021 #BollywoodMonster Mashup” (BMM), taking place at Mississauga Celebration Square, and online, July 16 to 24, 2021. BMM successfully pivoted to online programming in 2020 in response to COVID-19, and will present a hybrid 10-year anniversary celebration in 2021 with limited-attendance in-person activities and virtual activities. As usual, BMM programming will include South Asian headliners, musicians and dancers from all backgrounds (Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, etc.), premiere Canadian performances from Bollywood playback singing stars and reality TV stars, original Bollywood music fusion productions and dance commissions, Bollywood dance lessons (including some tailored to seniors), “KidZone”, and South Asian marketplace. 2021 programming includes:

)(1) “#BollywoodMonster Pre-Shows” (two nights, dates tbd): comedy (Fade To Brown, Cassie Cao, Brandon Ash-Mohammad, Ernie Vicente, Rupan Bal, Jus Reign, Edworld Kim), traditional Gujarati dance (Nritya, Nick Pandya ft. Vedik Vibez), bhangra dance (Waris Virse De), and Punjabi fusion music (Juggy Bajwa);

(2) “#BollywoodMonster Family Fun” (dates tbd): interactive Bollywood dance lesson for seniors (Ria Aikat), interactive visual arts lesson (Devika Mathur), interactive heritage activity (Raheel Patel), interactive Indo-Caribbean music lesson (Devin Ramoutar), kids Q&A (Amish Patel), interactive Indo-Caribbean dance lesson (Melissa Marie Dance), and seniors showcase (Anna Silgardo); and

(3) “#StayHome with #BollywoodMonster” (Friday and Saturday concerts): main stage (Amin Dhillon, Randy Persaud, Uppekha Jain), AMA stage (Sean Persaud, MC JD), Indo-Caribbean fusion music, Reign Yash Dance Academy, Bhangra drumming, Indo-Caribbean fusion music and dance, a Punjabi/Bengali fusion band, Chutney fusion band , Tassa band, and Bollywood programming and meet and greet with Deepika Padukone, Neeti Mohan and Neha Bhasin.

Covid preparedness:

Organizers have chosen to focus primarily on virtual programming, as a virtual event (with limited-attendance in-person pre-shows) is plan A, while a regular in-person festival is plan B. Should plan B come to fruition, they are prepared to add the new 2021 programming plans (Mississauga Celebration Square has been booked for good measure).

Local artist performances for the broadcast will be pre-recorded in an empty theatre, as they did in 2020, and safety equipment (non-contact infrared thermometer, large supply of PPE) and processes (temperature checks at the door, reduced crew size, one act in the building at a time, sanitizing surfaces between groups) are in place to keep all artists and team members safe.