TAMASHA: An Extravaganza of Desi Fusion at Frost Amphitheater

TAMASHA: An Extravaganza of Desi Fusion is an evening-long program that highlights both emerging and established voices from South Asia. Event headliner will be Bollywood star Raja Kumari, the Grammy-nominated artist, rapper, and songwriter celebrated for blending Indian classical music with hip-hop, R&B, and electronic influences. A pioneer of global fusion music, she has collaborated with artists including Iggy Azalea, Sidhu Moosewala, Divine, and John Legend.

The evening begins at 5 PM with a DJ set by Vani, followed by a dance party with the Bay Area’s Duniya Dance & Drum Company, a drag performance from The Masala Mahal featuring Bindi Masala, Chai Auntea, and Shaidy Bee, and will be MC’d by comedian and musician Abby Govindan.

TAMASHA is guest curated by Karishma Bhagani, one of Stanford Live’s 2024–25 season Curatorial Fellows and PhD Candidate in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University. Bhagani shared: “Tamasha means a grand show, spectacle or celebration in Hindi. This word traveled across the Kala Paani (Indian Ocean) and was adopted by the Swahili coast to mean festival. Similar to the migration and adoption of phrases across different languages and cultures, this year’s festival foregrounds comedians, musicians, singers and dancers whose practices are deeply rooted within Indian traditions and have evolved to incorporate practices from Black performance traditions. Some of these include fusing Indian musical and dance practices with rap, hip hop, voguing, and African rhythms and dance.”