Strings

Founded in 1994 by Kiran Thakrar, Strings has become the foremost exponent of Indian music in UK and worldwide. Strings present spellbinding performances of Indian music in a range of styles, from Gujarati Folk Dandiya Raas & Garba to soul-shaking Bollywood classics to Bhangra to Swahili to Fusion.

Strings spectacular presentations are driven by its two key members. Kiran Thakrar, the founder and musical director of the band, has been working, living and breathing music for over 30 years. He has performed in more than 4000 concerts worldwide and has worked with some of the most respected names in the music, theatre and film industries music like Belbel Gilberto at MOBO Awards ceremony, Legendary Late Nusarahat Fatehalikhan, Bollywood Music Directors Nadeem Shravan & Ravindra Jain and many more

He has composed and produced many award-winning albums, such as his work on “Beyond Boundaries”, which was voted ‘Best World Music Album of 2004’ by Canada’s JUNO judges. His latest short film “Diana”, for which he composed the original music score, has recently won the world-famous IRIS Prize Awards.

Kiran continues to be the first choice for Bollywood playback singers, to set up the backing band for their concerts happening in UK & Europe. Artists include Hariharan, Sweta Pandit, Anuradha Pundwal, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krisnamurthy, Richa Sharma, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Reshma and many more.

Anu Shukla, the lead singer and artistic director of the band, began her international singing career at the age of 12 and has subsequently performed in Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Holland, India, America, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. She won the Best Female Singer award for the “All-UK Hindi Singers’ Competition” in 1993. She has also collaborated with world famous icon like German band Dissidenten and American Rnb superstar Ginuwine. In 2009 she was invited by prolific artistic director Martin Amaud of Les Petits to lend her vocals to the famous Bollywood musical “ Bollywood Land-Where love never dies” in the heart of Madrid's Westend theatre.

The band has played everything from international festivals and royal receptions to Never Mind The Buzzcocks (where they did a rousing version of ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ with Bill Bailey, Danny Alan, David Jones-Mcfly, Simon Amstell and Phill Jupitus) – even a two-night stint performing alongside Bill Bailey in front of 20,000 people at the Wembley arena.