Preeti and Pinky give Mumbai a miss

Like Falguni Pathak, the singing sisters are headed for their hometown, Ahmedabad, this Navratri.

Preeti and Pinky, who have wowed Mumbai’s dandiya crowd for over a decade, are headed to Gujarat this season. The duo will perform in Ahmedabad for all the nine days.

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Says Pinky, “Mumbai has become too commercial. No one cares for anything except making money. But we wanted to focus on a cause.” Initially, the two were scheduled to perform in Pune, but the event had to be called off after failing to get permissions. “It was a big event in the satellite city’s military grounds. Salman Khan, along with a number of Bollywood stars, was also scheduled to make an appearance. But since it’s a restricted area, clearance from authorities took time in coming and eventually, the organisers had to pull out,” sighs Preeti, pointing out that the gigs were for the widows of military personnel.

Adds Pinky, “We are really disappointed that we couldn’t go ahead with the show. It would have generated a lot of money for our war widows.” The Ahmedabad shows are also for charity. They will raise money for old age homes. “We want to create awareness about the old among our fans in Ahmedabad,” says Preeti. Ahmedabad is the duo’s home town and they performed there initially, before shifting base to Mumbai in 2000. Preeti and Pinky last performed in Australia, where they also have a fan following. “We were surprised with the enormous response we got from our shows Down Under,” beams Pinky. “The gigs would go on till about 1 am.”

The Gujarat crowd, she admits, is different from that in Mumbai. “They prefer traditional songs. We will only play western tunes and sugam sangeet in select venues,” says Preeti. “There will also be some Bollywood songs.”

The duo’s most popular Navratri songs
Tu jaane na (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Manyaro (Gujarati)
Pankhida (Gujarati)
Tara bina sham (Gujarati)
Pari hoon main (Hindi)
Kesariyo rang (Gujarati)
Manjula (Gujarati)
Nadi kinare naryali (Gujarati)
Kedo kato vagyo (Gujarati)
Verna vasani vagi (Gujarati)