Индийская рок-группа Parikrama празднует 35-летие и продолжает творить по-своему

35 Years On, Parikrama Are Thriving in the Face of Changing Trends and Aging The New Delhi veteran rock band’s founder and keyboardist Subir Malik talks about ‘Inside My Skin,’ creative freedom and why Parikrama are still doing things their own way three decades on. Across a half-hour conversation looking back at 35 years in action, Parikrama’s founder and keyboardist Subir Malik can’t help but wonder: what if their path was different? “If we ever wanted to shift to Bollywood, toh kya hojata yaar? (What would have happened?) We would’ve played bigger stadiums, we would have played this and that. Instead of a Mahindra, we would have driven a Mercedes,” Malik muses. In 1995, he says Parikrama got an offer “from one of the top labels to convert to IndiPop” during the wave of popularity that put the spotlight on artists like Silk Route, Lucky Ali and others. “It was a huge amount of money and even our closest friends told us that Parikrama should convert to Hindi pop,” Malik says matter-of-factly. In the end, the keyboardist said they did what they’ve always done. “We heard everyone, analyzed and then did what we wanted to do.” About three decades later, Parikrama continue to do whatever they want, whether it’s eschewing albums for singles — like their latest one “Inside My Skin” — or playing three-hour sets for college students who approach them with a 100-song setlist. Malik confirms, “Some colleges don’t interfere, some colleges do, like one show that we’re playing in the coming year, they have sent me a list of 100 songs. We had to really negotiate with them and clarify we don’t do too many covers now. We have no bloody problem playing covers of people who have inspired us to pick up our guitars and keyboards, but this was different.” At Kolkata’s Jadavpur University in April, Parikrama played for nearly three-and-a-half hours as opposed to their 90-minute set, to a reported 15,000 in attendance. Malik recalls how reassuring and gratifying it was that rock and roll found audiences on campuses after a few years of being on a lower rung in terms of demand, due to the popularity of styles like hip-hop, commercial pop and film music. “They knew each and every word of every song; they ended up making us do acoustic versions of songs we had not prepared, like [1995 song] ‘Till I’m No One Again,’” he points out. He’s quick to clarify that rock never intended to compete with other movements or genres for space. “Why the fuck do you think 35 years ago, we made an independent band? All of us – Euphoria, DR [Demonic Resurrection], Thermal And A Quarter, Great Society, Indian Ocean – we all made independent bands because we wanted to be independent,” Malik says. From supporting Iron Maiden to Deep Purple to undoubtedly having one of the most iconic Indian rock songs of all time with “But It Rained,” Parikrama celebrated 35 in a more elevated setting compared to the sweat and adrenaline of Jadavpur University, calling in friends and family at The Piano Man, Eldeco Centre in New Delhi last month. Guests included Indian Ocean’s Rahul Ram for a cover of “Stairway to Heaven” as well as Nathan Sherpa, the son of the band’s late lead guitarist Sonam Sherpa, for their hit song. It marked a steady and renewed commitment to touring live after a year of uncertainty owing to vocalist Nitin Malik’s health issues. Parikrama were asked to pull out of the Bir Festival in May as the singer’s health once again became a concern, even as they made assurances that they would be able to perform with guest vocalists. “Nitin’s health [deteriorated] around Dec. 3, 2024, and by December 2025, he was kind of certified to get on stage again, but it’s been coming and going,” the keyboardist says of his younger brother. Where Nitin also led Parikrama as a main composer, other members like guitarist Saurabh Chaudhry took over some of the process for their latest song “Inside My Skin,” written around mental health awareness. “Nitin chipped in later,” Malik adds. Staying in the same house since the beginning of Parikrama, the vocalist didn’t have to travel more than a flight of stairs for rehearsal, but it was a different matter when it came to being gig-ready for their high-energy marathon performances. “The last few months, we’ve been taking it slower, because we realized that we missed almost one and a half years of our normal touring, but we’re not doing the normal shows. We thought that we can consolidate all of them and do it under the Parikrama @ 35 tour [banner],” Malik says. They have about 10 shows coming up, and a documentary titled Parikrama – The Wheel of Indian Rock – is also slated to release soon, via filmmaker Aankit Singh. “We told Aankit, you’re the one making the documentary on Parikrama – good, bad, ugly – it’s all on you. We’re not going to interfere. We’ll see it the same day as everyone else,” Malik says. “I’ll be very frank, our aim is [to] just keep working,” he says. They still detest the studio recording rigmarole, but less than before, which is what is leading to more releases. As always, Parikrama are not ones to sit quietly when there’s rock and roll mayhem to spread. “It’s just that feeling of ‘Come on, what’s the next big challenge?’ The reason that I, at 56, am the way I am is because every day I get up and still keep challenging myself.”