DIWALI MAY BE the Hindu festival of lights, but it will be celebrated with a cavalcade of sound in Hong Kong this year with performances by two of India's biggest pop acts.
The Bombay Rockers start off the celebrations in Cyberport's Ocean View Arena and Sea View Terrace on Saturday, followed by Jay Sean, at the Viceroy and DV8, in Wan Chai, on October 21. Both acts have had international success with distinctly non-Bollywood, Indo-western hybrid hits.
'Part of the reason for the success of my music is because it's not anything like what's coming out of the musical films in India,' says Sean. 'I didn't want to repeat any of that because many in my generation of British-born Indians couldn't relate 100 per cent to it. We had to have our own sound that was a cocktail of cultures - just like we are.
'I grew up listening to rap and hip hop, and I was writing music when I was 13. My point of view was different. We spoke English at home. The only time I spoke Punjabi was [with] my grandparents, but I couldn't hold an entire conversation in Punjabi,' says Sean, who is Sikh by birth and wears his traditional, trademark kara silver bracelet at all times.
'Like other Indian kids living in England or Canada, they hold on to their roots, but they're very much westernised. My music has that flavour they can relate to, especially since it has never been done before, not by a young Indian person. I found my niche and it's grown.'
Sean, 26, is the most successful Asian R&B performer to have hit the charts in India and Britain. His stage name comes from the Indian word shaan, or 'pride'. He was born Kamaljit Jhooti in Southall, London, and has never lived in India. Bollywood movies were a part of his upbringing, but he noticed that Indian singers struggled to succeed internationally. 'When Indian singers try to get into the western market, from the listener's point of view, they don't quite sound authentic,' he says.
'It would be like me singing in Spanish or something - the accent wouldn't be right, the tone wouldn't be quite right. But I was born and brought up in London and my music reflects that.'