By Pramod Kulkarni
HOUSTON: It was the best of all possibilities — an opportunity to support one of Houston’s leading community organizations and to witness Niche Entertainment’s exciting presentation of Bollywood’s musical journey through 100 songs encompassing the best compositions between 1913 and 2025.
Sewa International’s Houston Chapter held its annual fundraiser on the evening of Friday, May 15, 2026 at the Immanuel Mar Thoma Church auditorium in southwest Houston. This year’s entertainment featured live dancers and singers performing against the backdrop of video clips of the corresponding cinemas. Sewa’s Kavita Tewary and Dr. Pranav Loyalka welcomed the audience and gave an overview of the programs under Sewa Houston. Alpana Loyalka and Rajesh Patwari did the vote of thanks.
Over the last several decades, Pune-based Niche Entertainment has presented more than a dozen shows that present Bollywood or regional movie highlights with live singers and dancers, starting with “Bhairav to Bhairavi”, their first show in the early 1980s. The programs are the creations of Director Milind Oak. The singers are excellent, including many of the contestants from Indian Idol and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contests. The dancers have also been featured in dance contests such as India’s Superstar.
The Bollywood Musical Journey presentation began with India’s first silent movie, Raja Harishchandra, produced by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913 continued through the Golden decades to include the latest Bollywood hit — Dhurandhar. The presenter Nachiket Devasthali revealed several nuggets of previously unfamiliar Bollywood trivia and also entertained the audience with his recitation of Urdu couplets.
The singers — Abhilasha Chellam, Jitendra Abhyankar, Chaitanya Kulkarni, and Malvika Dikshit— were excellent in their renditions of hit songs by famous Bollywood playback artistes — Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. The audience applauded the staging of songs such as the comedy duet of Mohammad Rafi and Manna Dey in the movie Padosan.
Dancers were Abhishek Havaragi, Rutuja Ingle, Ajay Kanase, and Riya Desai. The audience loved the rendition of “Ek Do Teen” made famous by Madhuri Dixit. It is difficult to present 100 Bollywood
hit songs in a span of just 2.5 hours. As a result, most of the iconic songs had to be truncated to a minute or less clips. Notable misses were actors Waheeda Rehman and Manoj Kumar, and 1965 movies Sangam and Guide. During the interval, Sewa organized an efficient sale of snacks and tea catered by the Mirch Masala restaurant. The customers especially enjoyed the samosas and wada-pav.
Some of Sewa Houston Chapter’s upcoming events include participation in the International Day of Yoga and Yoga 5K walk on June 21, Sewa Dancing Stars on August 29, 9/11 days of service commemoration event on September 12. Sewa will also participate in the Viksit Bharat Run with Consul General’s office on September 20. Sewa’s annual garba will be held on September 27. The last major event will be Sewa International’s fundraiser HELP on November 15.
Sewa’s programs are grouped into the following categories: Disaster Resiliency, Education, Family Services, Youth Engagement, S.E.L.F. and Serve. Excellent examples of Sewa’s Disaster efforts include providing aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey and the Kerr County flooding. S.E.L.F. (Sleep, Exercise, Living in the Present, Food & Diet) is an initiative to promote physical fitness and a balanced lifestyle. Over the past five years, Sewa has organized 50+ 5k runs in partnership with several local organizations. Sevwa is also active in the Chevron Houston Marathon with 130+ runners and 140+ volunteers.
For more information on the full range of Sewa International Houston Chapter’s activities and support services, visit sewausa.org
