We feel like the incubators who’ve given the artists a stage that feels like a home.

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Our family business is into the hotel industry. I also enjoyed the business, so did Hotel Management from IHM Mumbai. After that, I pursued Law. The idea behind doing law was to have a fair knowledge of the legalities behind running a business. After the first year, I was sure of understanding the basics. Aur sach bataun to mere palle bhi nahi par rahe the. So, I dropped out and started my own business in 2015.

I founded ‘The Habitat’ and ‘Above the Habitat.’ At that time, it was just supposed to be a music space. Eventually, it spread to poetry, comedy, screening events, and basically all forms of live theatre and live performances in a space where you can also have food and beverages. We became a full-fledged recording studio side by side as well. Kyonki, we saw that so many artists enjoyed coming and performing there. Now we also do post-production as well. In 2022, we started home delivery from The Habitat Canteen. In essence, ‘ek dukan chalu ki the aur aaj waha 4 dukanein ban chuki hai.’

Let me tell you an interesting fact about our brand name. Habitat means home, like a space where you incubate or grow. We feel like the incubators who’ve given the artists a stage that feels like a home and helps them to grow. Ek artist ka din kitna bhi kharab kyon na jaye, stage pe jaane k baad wo sab bhul jata hai, just like the peace we feel at home even after a bad day. And that’s why we’ve kept our tagline as ‘The stage is my Habitat'.

I feel the entire community of art is multiple movements of various independent artists. When you say independent, it means there are no promoters, there is no label backing you. Everything is self-produced, and self-promoted. Whoever goes big, wo khud ke bal pe khara hota hai aur saath saath baaki sare artists jinke saath kaam kiya hai, unko bhi promote karta hai. That’s why our Instagram handle is @indiehabitat, as in ‘Independent Habitat’.

So the main point of calling it IndieHabitat is just that, it’s a home to incubate, it’s a home to grow, and it’s a home to come back to. Kyonki aap chahe kitne bhi bade artist kyon na ban jao, aap wapas Habitat laut aaoge fir se art create karne ke liye. Several artists who have made it big often come to Habitat to perform at lineup shows, open mics and do their own run of trial shows to build their material again, restart the cycle. They get back to the roots kyon ki unhe pata hai ki unki kahani yahi se suru hue the aur fir se unhe lautna hai kuch naya create karne k liye.

From the business perspective, I thought I’d explored everything within that creative space but I was wrong. You know most of the artists who visit us love playing Chess. Like agar show start hone me time hai toh they often play chess to pass their time. It’s an intellectual sport, and the artists are passionate about it.

Recently, when R Praggnanandhaa reached the FIDE World Cup Chess final, we planned the live screening and analysis with ChessBase India’s Sagar Shah, Comedian and Blundermaster Samay Raina, Amruta and other chess lovers! We came up with the plan on the last night before the finale. The tickets went live by 10 a.m. The event started at 4 p.m., and by 2 p.m., 100 tickets were sold. And it happened on a Wednesday, i.e., a working day. It felt surreal.

You know, in the beginning, we struggled for getting audiences. We used to try different things like including food and beverage in the ticket as a cover charge, tweak show timings for maximum footfall, but the response would always be unpredictable. And now came a time when we sold out the 4 p.m. Wednesday event. Moreover, we peaked at 30,000 people watching the event on YouTube since we were live-streaming the event to Chessbaseindia channel, and they have a great, audience on YouTube thanks to all the effort by their team . After eight hours, we got more views than the official YouTube channel of Fide Chess. We were in total awe.

At the end of the day, I feel that there is still so much that remains to be explored. We've just announced multiple dates at various large auditoriums across Mumbai, starting from September all the way till March 2024, under the banner - The Big Show: All Star Stand-up Comedy. We are very excited for this property as all the comics on each lineup are amongst my favorites promising a guaranteed great time of laughter. This is taking daily club comedy to a larger venue, and it's the best place to introduce friends and family to this genre of entertainment. There are so many people who still don't know much and don't follow the amazing work that these artists do, and at Habitat we believe that we have to be the agents of change, create events which pushes newer people to come and enjoy.

Delhi Stories is an emerging platform to feature inspirational, motivational, relatable and beautiful stories. Do you also have an inspiring story like Vows Wedding?

Share with us we'll feature it Dil se...