WhatsApp groups and communities are emerging as silent supporters of the performing arts through the tireless efforts of their founders and the commitment of their members.

By Nidhi Lodaya

When it comes to the arts, newsletters and mailing lists have been the preferred medium for sharing updates. WhatsApp used to be a space for one-to-one communication or perhaps for a group of friends or family members to conveniently keep in touch. However, over the years, this platform has grown into something more functional. Today, there exist online groups that broadcast information on performances and allow arts lovers to stay updated about all kinds of gigs, including niche events that may not get listed on other platforms.

In 2018, architect-turned-musician Pankaj Tak started Some Good Gigs (SGG), one of the first WhatsApp communities dedicated to discovering and amplifying indie music gigs in Mumbai. Seven years later, SGG has groups in more than 10 cities across the country with over 6,500 members.

At a time when the independent music scene in India largely depended on word of mouth, and most shows were often not listed on ticketing platforms, Tak aimed to discover gigs that online portals would miss. “I started SGG purely from the need to attend more gigs,” he states. What started as a rudimentary group where he added a few musician friends who shared updates about shows, gradually turned into something much bigger.

Tak would connect with people involved in the music scene at the smaller gigs he attended. He realised that people saw value in what he was doing through SGG— trying to fill a vacuum in the industry. “It happened organically. Slowly, more people started asking for a link.” Among the group’s members now are organisers, promoters, journalists, photographers, videographers, venue owners and music lovers.

Groups like SGG and people like Tak are the silent supporters of the performing arts who have used WhatsApp to tirelessly share information and create an online space for the community, impacting the offline traction of events.

Mumbai-based social psychologist Chandni Parekh has been spreading the word about upcoming visual and performing arts events in the city since 2009. She started her mailers to help break access barriers. “I didn’t want anyone to miss out on an interesting opportunity or an event just because they did not know about it or were not in the right circles or groups,” she says. Keeping in mind that ticketed events may not be affordable, and free events would not have a marketing budget to reach a wider audience, she decided to bridge the gap by focusing on free events in the city. Having started doing this in a pre-WhatsApp era, Parekh first shared updates over emails. Over the years, she has dabbled in multiple formats. Today, she uses the broadcast feature on WhatsApp in groups created by her and fellow enthusiasts of arts and culture. She also manages the Instagram page, Events in Bombay (@eventsinbombay), with the help of a friend.

Parekh shares information about a multitude of events across Mumbai such as treks, guided walks, exhibitions, indie and classical music performances, open mic nights, talks, webinars and seminars on social issues, and independent film screenings. In an interesting example of cross-pollination of similar initiatives, she actively posts on Tak’s groups—SGG and SGG for classical music—and redirects people to other groups.

There is also Apan Singhal’s film screening group for niche, independent cinema. Singhal doesn’t just forward a listing. He curates a message that has a synopsis of the film and a link to his website Fillum. With groups in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, Singhal uses Instagram and WhatsApp to redirect people to Fillum, where he posts upcoming screenings with an option to RSVP and book tickets if the organiser opts for that feature. The Delhi resident, who does not have a film background, says he has always been interested in media and film distribution. “Independent cinema, documentaries, foreign and classical cinema, are not in any release cycle in commercial theatres and thus do not reach a large audience. That does not mean that people do not want to watch them. They just do not know about these films,” notes Singhal and this is the gap he aims to bridge with Fillum and his WhatsApp groups.

Singhal admits that being regular on Instagram and putting together a creative to post takes effort and time, whereas on the messaging app, he can type a message within seconds. “Also, while the WhatsApp message is sure to reach every person in the group, the same cannot be said for Instagram where posts are dictated by algorithms and engagement, which incentivises posting of more popular films and that is something which does not resonate with the spirit of the kind of cinema Fillum is meant for,” Singhal explains. He uses Instagram as a tool to reach and be discovered by a new audience, but the end goal is to have them join the WhatsApp groups.

For all three of them, this is mainly a one-person job, but they do not mind the work it takes. “I find it worthwhile,” shares Parekh. “The impact of everything isn’t always big and known immediately, but small efforts matter.”

The NCPA Mumbai Dance Season—a month-long dance festival in Mumbai, which came to be because of a WhatsApp group, is an apt example of how small efforts can have a big impact.

In 2017, Dr. Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, Head – Dance Programming, NCPA, formed a group on the messaging app to overcome the frustration of seeing dance performances clash in the city, forcing the audience to choose one event over another. “Mumbai doesn’t have a large audience base for dance, and I discovered that senior artistes were performing on the same dates at different venues in the city. So, it was important for us to ensure that we do not clash,” says Dr. Dasgupta. Once the group was made, the discussion took the direction of having something on the lines of the famous Chennai Dance Season and thus, the idea of the NCPA Mumbai Dance Season was born with its first edition held in 2018.

“The season is a huge deal because it is the only such dance event that has ever happened in Mumbai,” she says. Besides this group, Dr. Dasgupta has also made more niche groups—Kathak@NCPA, Bharatanatayam@ NCPA and Odissi@NCPA. “Each of them has dancers and students of that dance form in Mumbai. The idea is to bring communities together.” The Bharatanatyam group currently has over 130 members. Dr. Dasgupta says that these hyper-specific groups have helped her gauge whether the community would be interested in specific events that the Dance department at the NCPA plans on organising.

While the NCPA Mumbai Dance Season is a pertinent example of the power of a WhatsApp community, Tak also shares how his pan-India music groups have aided much-needed discourse on the reality of independent music scenes in cities beyond the metros. In one such discussion a few months ago, members of the SGG Jaipur group brought up the lack of proper venues in the Pink City. A promoter responded, saying they could help build the scene better if a venue provided a space for independent music. The conversation is still in progress. In addition, Tak says, two Mumbai-based venues recently came together and offered their space to a band whose gig was cancelled, all within a couple of hours of the news appearing on the group.

These healthy discussions are a means for people to grow, support and build the scene. And it’s not just organisers who are grateful for a more robust and diverse turnout. For Parekh, the impact of her work is felt when she receives messages stating how people have managed to overcome boredom and loneliness by attending an interesting event, make friends or even connections for work.

Isn’t that what art is about?

This article was originally published in the August 2025 issue of ON Stage.