The English Press Club reached out to Aarchi Singh Thakur, the coordinator of the Department of Live Events (DLE), to learn more about why the department withdrew completely from its responsibilities for APOGEE 2024.

Aarchi began by explaining how the CoStAA had gone against the Charter by not allowing DLE to pitch for N2O, the comedy show. She said the department had repeatedly asked about the CoStAA’s preference for the comedians they wanted, but they had always put it off, saying they would get back to it later. However, when she found out that the CoStAA was a day away from signing a deal, the coordinator said that she was somehow able to get a quote worth ₹50,000 less for the same comedians on the same day. This deal did not go through, as the CoStAA said that the Hindi Activities Society (HAS) had been responsible for conducting N2O for a long time and had always done ‘a good job’. Aarchi also noted that the CoStAA explained that since DLE was already calling a few artists, they should let HAS be responsible for conducting N2O.

Aarchi elaborated that the next violation of the Charter came in the form of tampering with Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). She described that the quotes DLE had found had been the lowest overall for their artists, with and without production. To proceed with the deal, an MoU was signed bearing the President’s and the CRC’s signatures. But the agency also demanded that Aarchi’s signature be on the document, to which she agreed. Aarchi then proclaimed that the General Secretary and CoStAAn of the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing got on a call with the agency and told them that the signed MoU was invalid because of Aarchi’s signature. Following this, a new MoU was drafted and signed, bearing the Registrar’s signature. Nevertheless, the CoStAA refused the advance payments to be made to the agency even after repeated reminders by Aarchi, and went ahead and signed with a different agency altogether. This prompted the original agency they had signed with to come to the campus, following which the Registrar had a talk with them. He had to convince them to not take legal action against the institute for reneging upon their MoU, according to Aarchi.

The new agency the CoStAA signed with also failed to provide the required audio and video production elements that were needed for the musical shows, Aarchi said. She added that the Election Commission (EC), the CoStAA, and DLE had previously agreed that such an ‘element sheet’ would be provided to DLE to ensure no problems would arise in the production of these events. Still, she said, she failed to receive such a sheet on time, and when she did, she found out that the equipment they were providing was not up to the mark. This led to the massive delays seen during the Hip-Hop Nite, and it was also indirectly responsible for cancelling Fotty Seven’s set entirely, she claimed.

More problems arose while attempting to sell tickets for these events, she went on to say.  Aarchi claimed that DLE was ‘threatened’ to do signings with Embryo or not do them at all. She explained that the CoStAA told them to do ANC & Looters signings with Embryo, but Aarchi refused to, citing possible overcrowding at these eateries, thus driving people away from them.

Aarchi explained that all these little things added up, leading to DLE completely backing out of the fest. She clarified that DLE had even tried to seek help by approaching the EC, who had assured them that proper action would be taken against the CoStAA members responsible for these issues, something she was confident would happen soon. However, due to ‘hostile’ working conditions where she felt that no rules were being followed at all, she said that backing out was a decision she had taken after careful deliberation with the rest of her department, and not an impulsive one.

When asked about why she thought all this had happened, the coordinator put it down to the CoStAA’s ‘ego’. She also mentioned that there were some ‘anti-DLE’ sentiments among the CoStAA, which added fuel to the fire. In support of this statement, she mentioned how she had been told that unless she removed a specific member from her department, DLE would not handle the ticketing for professional shows (excluding N2O). She also asserted that the major reason QR codes were scanned for entering the VIP box at Mohit Chauhan’s concert, even after it was declared free for everyone, was to ensure that nobody from DLE could enter the box. 

In parting, Aarchi urged the GBM not to think of the whole situation as merely ‘drama’. She alleged that whatever had happened was very unfair, and by refusing to work for the fest, she wanted to set a precedent to prevent similar cases from arising again. She was quite hopeful about DLE working in further editions of fests and said that they might even try to become a major department in the future, once things improved. She concluded by hoping that proper actions would be taken in their support and that similar issues would not occur in upcoming fests.