Saarang
| Saarang | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Cultural |
| Dates | January, second week. |
| Location(s) | Chennai, India |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Attendance | 500 colleges |
| Organized by | IIT Madras |
| Filing status | Student-run non-profit organization |
| Website | |
| http://www.saarang.org | |
| https://www.facebook.com/saarangiitm | |
Saarang (means 'Chital' or Spotted Deer in Sanskrit, a common sight on IIT Madras campus) is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. The cultural festival is a 5 day long event usually extending from Wednesday to the second Sunday of the year. Founded in 1974, Saarang is the second oldest college festival in India and has established a firm place in every student's college bucket list. Having started off under the banner of 'Mardi Gras' the fest was initially home to a small number of quizzes and music events widely regarded as South India's most competitive. Through the early 21st century the festival, having changed its avatar and adopted the name 'Saarang', grew rapidly with the help of corporate sponsorship, collaboration with large scale event organisers and international artistes from 5 continents.
Saarang is a not-for-profit, entirely student run, ISO 9001:2015 organisation, making it the only one of its kind amongst college festivals. All organising members of the festival are current students of IIT Madras. 450 student coordinators are selected from amongst 10,000 students on campus through a gruelling and competitive application procedure, characteristic of the IITs. The coordinators are organised as per function, in 12 departments, each headed by a 'core coordinator'. The 12 departments are led by the 2 cultural secretaries, who are elected by the institute annually in March.
In the early 1970s, a "cultural week" festival was held.
The fest was formally started in 1974-75 as Mardi Gras, the focus of the festival being to promote interest in cultural and literary activities and to develop the organizational skills of the students. The event was renamed to 'Saarang' in 1996 to give it a more 'Indian' theme. The fest has gone on to become an integral part of the city culture of Chennai. Commercial sponsorships for the event increased significantly in the late 90s allowing the event to attract a much higher profile.
Saarang has observed a wide range of personalities present lectures and conduct demonstrations during the event and as a part of Pre-Saarang activities. “Spotlight”, a concept in the previous editions of Saarang was a platform for famous and notable persons from various fields to address the audience and hold interactive sessions with them. Past speakers to have featured in Saarang include Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Kamal Hassan, Shriya Saran, Manu Joseph, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani, Leela Samson, Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi, Anita Rathnam, Ira Trivedi and R. Balakrishnan.
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