When Devi Sri Prasad hosted the ‘DSP USA Tour World Premiere Event’ recently at Prasads, guests didn’t know what to expect besides the fact that they’ll be treated to an evening of music and dance. The norm with any celebrity world tour is to record the proceedings that will later be aired on television. But how much of the euphoria can one gauge while watching on television? Like Devi Sri Prasad puts it, “The wow factor goes missing when you watch a television recording.”
As the next step, he decided to record his live shows in the US using steady cams and 4K cameras. “Television channels don’t use high-end cameras because for them, the cost of production may not be feasible,” he says. Diligently, like writing a script, DSP and team decided costumes, camera angles, lighting and points of entry and exit for each performer. “I like to emerge from amidst the audience and then the light is on me. The audience likes such surprises. I wanted to give this experience of being amidst an audience of 5000 to 10,000, accompanied by the energy level brought in by cheering and dancing, to viewers watching the recording,” he says.
DSP didn’t give away the satellite rights for television before he set out on the tour because he didn’t want to be bound by a format. His team recorded his shows at New Jersey, Atlanta, San Jose, Chicago, Dallas and Washington DC. The edited footage from the shows was screened during the premiere at Prasads, in Dolby Atmos.
The composer-singer talks about his fascination with sound technology. “I was among the first music directors to experiment with 5.1 surround and DTS. With Dolby Atmos, we’ve come far. The technology allows you to place sound in different parts of the hall. For instance, if the anchor asks the audience what they’d like as the next song and someone screams ‘Gabbar Singh’ or ‘Who are you?’, the recording will have the effect of sounds emerging from the specific places in the hall. During the premiere, we were able to make the guests feel as though they were amidst a live performance,” he says, the happiness evident.
Compliments poured in from Chiranjeevi, Allu Arjun, Prabhu Deva and a host of stars who attended the event. His contemporaries in the music field have been calling him to share notes of the recording. Recording performances and screening them in theatrical format, he says, will allow viewers anywhere to experience the euphoria of watching shows that use state of the art technology. “If I want to do similar shows in Hyderabad or Vijayawada, we may not have the access to sound and light technology that the US has. Or there could be other constraints,” he contrasts.
Devi Sri Prasad intends to have similar screenings in other cities eventually. Will be they be ticketed shows? “We are yet to work out the details,” he says, adding that the proceedings will go to help children who are blind or hearing impaired. “This is my way of helping a few children listen to music or see a dance performance. The world is more beautiful when you can see and hear,” he says.
The ‘DSP USA Tour World Premiere Event’ will be telecast on Zee television network soon.
