I didn’t think much of it at the time: Adam Avil on missed opportunities and more

Musician Adam Avil has a been there-done that sort of air about him. And it rings true, because it probably is. He’s been part of a rock band that has seen its highs and lows, changed identities and disbanded, too. These days, he’s composing music in Bollywood (Sunshine Music Tours And Travels Ltd) when he’s not managing events and recently put out a new EP. Here, he talks about a film he will be acting in and reminisces about a phase of his life that inspired a cult film called Paanch, directed by Anurag Kashyap.  

Somebody recently told me that Paanch is based on your band and its struggles. How true is this?

Anurag Kashyap was a close friend of my band’s manager Hermito Fernandes. Back then, we had some crazy tours in the North-East in the ’90s which is the only good pocket of audience for rock music, I remember our first gig was in Imphal in front of 10,000 people, the ground was packed with audiences spilling over boundary walls and trees. We ran out of steam as a band in 30 minutes. The crowd had paid to see ‘the greatest band from Bombay’ (as mentioned on banners/ poster), but we started getting pelted at with stones. We were forced to leave immediately as the crowds wanted to beat us for the poor show.  After the first disastrous gig, the remaining shows still saw the audiences chasing us everywhere, but this time, it was with love, gifts, appreciation and how they were blown by the songs and performances. Actually the front row audiences chased us from city to city singing our originals which was a big surprise. Whatever was narrated to Kashyap by Hermito from the trips or when he saw us at a concert at Rang Bhavan, he took our rage, rebellious attitude and mixed it with another true incident from Pune... I remember my friend calling me up at night saying, “Dude, I was at the Paanch launch. Do you know that the movie is inspired by your band? I didn’t think much of it at the time, said ‘Ah, cool’, and went back to sleep.

Is it a mirror to the band’s Greek phase or is it set during the time you guys went as Pralay?

It’s definitely the Greek phase, I guess. During the Pralay phase, things got a bit worse for a bunch of jobless musicians....so we started beating each other in the band over booze, girls and soon there was no money to fight over, either.

Luke Kenny went on to work in a movie on a rock band. As someone who’s acting far later in life than he did, do you think you missed out?

Actually, Luke did Bombay Boys prior to that. I remember Kaizad Gustad’s office calling me and the guys to their office for the same film, but we were flying to Almaty, Kazakastan, for a tour the next day. I believe they called at the Otrar hotel for us to get back and give it a shot, but Luke who was with Channel V at the time, did the film. He was kinda multi-tasking — DJing, hosting and other showbiz stuff. Nobody misses out on anything if you’re ready you take the opportunity and move ahead. If you’re not, you stay back, I did miss out on the Kazak opportunity to continue to take the band into an international band touring, recording and performing with other artists as we wasted our time on other stuff. I didn’t miss out on the acting stuff, I did dabble a bit in theatre.... but moved out as those guys were too serious/stuck up for me....

Tell us about this upcoming film you’re in?

It’s called Jango and revolves around human trafficking, prostitution, sexual crimes against women, etc. My only message through the film is to stop sexual crimes against women.

Do you think if Paanch had seen the light of day, things would have been different today?

Yes. We would have been recognised... more work, more money. But things are meant to be the way it is, time takes care of everything. I will continue to work hard... and hope to make few good friends along the way.

DID YOU KNOW?

Pralay’s debut album Urban Reality was shortlisted for the 2003 Grammys in the World Music category.