Piyush Mishra performing on stage with Ballimaaraan. Photo: Tamboo
In 2016, when actor, writer and musician Piyush Mishra, guitarist Nishant Agarwal and percussionist Jayant Patnaik started their music project Ballimaaraan, it was just a trio. A culmination of all of Mishra’s work in theater, film and music, Ballimaaraan has since grown to become 14 members strong (including crew), touring around India in 2023 and in the U.S. early this year.
Mishra says over a video call, “There are nine people on stage itself. It has become a big band and there are high expectations.” Ballimaaraan is now looking even further, mounting a 14-city tour starting Nov. 9 in Kolkata. The Udankhatola India tour – which will see Mishra and Ballimaaraan even travel by road on a tour bus between cities – is curated by entertainment company Tamboo and produced jointly with fellow entertainment firm Thinking Hats.
Mishra’s Ballimaaraan Udankhatola India tour also stops by Ahmedabad (Nov. 23), Vadodara (Nov. 24), Indore (Nov. 30), Bhopal (Dec. 1), Pune (Dec. 8), Mumbai/Thane (Dec. 21) and in 2025, spreads out to Raipur (Jan. 12), Hyderabad (Jan. 18), Bengaluru (Jan. 25), Gurugram (Feb. 22), Chandigarh (Feb. 23), Lucknow (Mar. 1) and is slated to end in Kanpur on Mar. 2, 2025.
At the center of it, of course, is the band’s music. Mishra says that with their previous tours, they’ve seen that audiences have not shown up to demand Bollywood songs, lapping up the songs that aren’t part of film projects. He says about the power of Ballimaaraan’s songs, “They are so popular, chirpy and hummable and meaningful in such great measure, on their own.” Whether it’s a song about whiskey, youth or India’s political situations, Mishra promises that their songs won’t bore you.
Ballimaaraan performing live on stage. Photo: Tamboo
While news of recording an album was already afloat last year, Mishra notes that they have five songs ready for it, with more to be added. Working with Mishra’s longtime collaborator and producer Hitesh Sonik, the album is slated for release in March, after which Ballimaaraan’s Udankhatola tour might just travel to more cities in India, plus U.K. and Australia. “We rejected 15 songs at the least. It’s not that they didn’t fit, there were just better songs that fit. It felt hard to scrap these songs but we tried to produce more songs that fit together well and now have at least five songs like that,” Mishra says about the album.
At this point, Mishra asks – not as a boast – if there’s any other 62-year-old Indian artist who’s releasing their debut album the way he’s planning. He says, “Who puts out an album at the age of 62? I might be the first – this is a good thing and a terrible thing. It’s coming out and we have this tour where we’re trying to reach places we haven’t before.”
Tamboo CEO and founder Rahul Gandhi adds, “We are planning to go to Jabalpur. We’re playing cities that we’ve done before in this phase. We’ve played at IIT Kanpur, but not in this iteration. There are also plans for shows in Gwalior, Bhubaneswar, Patna… we want to go to a lot of new cities.”
The age factor for Mishra also extends to being on stage for a two-hour power-packed performance where Mishra rarely gets time to catch his breath. “The songs can’t be messed up and if anyone does mess with it, I’ll be the one. To be aware and conscious during this is an important responsibility […] If I do this for three days back to back, in three cities, by the third show, I’m absolutely tired and feel like I’m dying. Once the concert is done, though, you feel the satisfaction and the fruit of your passion,” he says.
Piyush Mishra on tour with Ballimaaraan. Photo: Tamboo
While Ballimaaraan – who have already performed at Ziro Festival of Music in Arunachal Pradesh in September – can claim to have taken their show to cities where few major acts go, the tradeoff is in finding the best stage as well as an audience. Gandhi says, “Sometimes, we don’t have to think about ticket sales in bigger cities. But in smaller cities, we think about it beyond commercials and how not everything can be put on an Excel Sheet to see if it can make sense. It’s about duty first and look beyond the Excel Sheets and do it for the love of music and art.”
Mishra chimes in to talk about accessibility and how their art shouldn’t get compromised wherever they play. He says, “After reaching a certain level, we have to think about the accessibility because we’re about communicating a message. It shouldn’t have to be that we play as half a band to suit the situation.”
He jokes about how demand may rise to the extent that fans would fight for tickets and that’s something any artist would love to see. “[But] we don’t want to become that costly band that people see only if they can afford it. We’ll curtail that,” Mishra adds.
Piyush Mishra’s Ballimaaraan – Udankhatola India Tour 2025
November 9th – Science City Auditorium, KolkataNovember 23rd – TBA, AhmedabadNovember 24th – Satyanarayan Lawns, VadodaraNovember 30th – The Park, IndoreDecember 1st – TBA, BhopalDecember 8th – Oasis, Amanora Mall, PuneDecember 21st – TMC Ground, ThaneJanuary 12th – Balbir Singh Juneja Indoor Stadium, RaipurJanuary 18th – TBA, HyderabadJanuary 25th – TBA, BengaluruFebruary 22nd – TBA, GurugramFebruary 23rd – TBA, ChandigarhMarch 1st – TBA, LucknowMarch 2nd – TBA, Kanpur
Get tickets here.
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