We are thankful to LOKALZ CREW for taking out time from their busy schedule and letting us know their experience in the field of K-Pop. Read their journey in this interview and try to take the positive vibes. From being contestants and then emerging as winners at LG K-Pop Contest 2019 in the dance category, here is LOKALZ CREW, to tell you that if you have that passion and if you are sincere, nothing can stop you from achieving your dream. Do follow them on Instagram and YouTube.
(Vishal Rawat, Vishal Dulal, Aman Singh, Sushil Chhetri, Rachna Bhagat, Sanskar Mehra, Ankit Thakur, Deep Gurang)
(Left to Right)
Q. Please introduce yourself.
LC: Hi! We are Lokalz Crew from Delhi. We are the winners of the dancing category at the LG K-Pop Contest 2019. The competition was held at the Talkatora Stadium in Delhi in July 2019. After winning the title, we went to South Korea where we represented India and worked with the biggest direction and production company of South Korea i.e. Zany Brothers Production who have produced and directed K-Pop idols under their company name. Alexa, IN2IT, MAMAMOO, ONEUS are to be named a few. They have also directed some of the MV’s of K-Pop idols like that of BTS, KARD, VAV and for many more K-Pop idols. We came back from South Korea in October 2019.
Video Credits : LOKALZ CREW
Q. How did you get to know about Korean culture?
LC: Korean culture i.e. the HALLYU WAVE videos are available on internet and as dancers, we all got motivated with how much efforts K-Stars put into their work, be it dancing, singing, cinematography and what not! Everything is perfect! Particularly it’s the blend of all these things that gave us motivation and this built up our interest in K-Pop.
Q. Who is your inspiration from Korean arts and entertainment industry? What kind of inspiration do you get from them?
LC: When it’s about K-Pop, itself it seems to be a very vast industry. So it is actually very hard for us to say from whom we got motivation from because when you start with sessions, you only get to know how much hard work a team has to put in to become one of a kind. So for us, it’s all of them, who gave us motivation and inspiration. Gangnam Style by PSY was a massive hit in India, since then we are following K-Pop. Every group has it’s own charm and stage charisma, but we would like to mention BTS who are the faces of K-Pop at the international level and EXO whose song LOVE SHOT made us win the K-Pop contest. They all really motivated us.
Q. What made you participate in the K-Pop Contest? How was your journey throughout the years of being a K-Pop fan and participating in the K-Pop Contest simultaneously?
LC: As a fan of K-Pop and following into the foot steps of idols, our team has been participating in K-Pop Contest since 2016 but every year we achieved 3rd position. So after taking a break in 2018, we participated in 2019 again! Winning the K-Pop Contest was like a beautiful dream to us! Looking back now, only we know how much strength, hard work we all had put in together. From being fans, to participating from the year 2016 and finally winning in the year 2019, it still looks like a dream.
Q. Tell us your experience of performing at various Korean cultural events?
LC: We have performed in various events that are held by Korean Cultural Centre India. We have performed in Andaz Hotel, Aerocity in front of the K-Pop Group MONT. We have performed at KCCI in front of many Korean Officials and Government Ministers as well. Besides this we have also performed in Delhi Colleges such as Jesus & Mary and Gargi College as winners of K-Pop Contest 2019 and to spread the positive vibes of music, dance and colors of K-Pop. We were glad that we got an opportunity to shoot a music video under Zany Bros Company. In Korea, we also did busking and grabbed attention of Korean youth and teens who were really surprised to see Indians performing on K-Pop. We have also performed in front of many K-Pop idols like IN2IT and Alexa.
We also performed at DPIFF (Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival 2020) which was held on 20th February, 2020 at Hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai. We got this huge opportunity to represent the music of K-Pop in front of huge Bollywood and Indian Television stars. We have performed in other states as well like that at IIT Kanpur and at Korean Association in Chennai. We further hope that we keep getting more opportunities in future so that we can promote K-Pop in India at a much bigger platform.
Video Credits: Lokalz Crew
Q. Please give your suggestions to the contestants who will participate in future events?
LC: We would like to suggest contestants of the K-Pop Contest India 2020 as it’s a solo competition this time due to COVID19, to not lose hope and confidence because it’s more tough to participate in solo category as compared to participating with a team. You need to focus on your abilities, there might be a lot of stress and pressure but trust us, nothing works when you are under stress and pressure. Just be well prepared with all your strength and hard work, put your love and dedication into your performance, be confident and we are sure you will give a remarkable one. All the best to all contestants!
Q. What are you currently doing these days?
LC: We as a team are preparing ideas on how we can do more creative stuff regarding K-Pop dance covers and after the situation gets better we hope to execute them. We hope we are able to give the audience the best of the our creativity.
Q. Where do you see yourself as a group in the next five years?
LC: As of now, we all know that till date, no team from India has been selected or seen performing at K-STAGE by JTBC Entertainment, so we would love to give our best and make our team worth being on the stage like this and make India proud for being first Indian team to show K-Pop dance performance on the K-STAGE. We would be highly obliged if we get more love and support from Indian fans who follow K-Pop and share our upcoming covers so that with the help of them we can reach heights and bring light to how much K-Pop is valued in India. A big thanks to those who have supported untill now and looking forward to get love from the rest!
Look at their journey in the video below!
I’d always wanted to know about the journey of the Lokalz Crew. This post is such a perfect insight.