About us
It started with a love of the music. It became something the whole community owns.
Opera Entertainment Australia was founded by Anuj Kulshreshtha and Vivek Kulshreshtha on one conviction: Sydney's Indian community is full of extraordinary talent, and it deserves stages worthy of it. Every event since has been an attempt to live up to that.
More than two hundred events later, we are still chasing the same moment — the one where the lights drop, the first note lands, and a room full of people who came from a dozen different states realise they all know the words. Today that means concerts, comedy, theatre, melas and talent quests, and we are only getting started.
What we do
Live entertainment, in every form our community loves
Music is where we started, and it remains the heart of what we do — but our programme is growing well beyond it. These are indoor, evening events: a seated room, a proper stage and a night out.
Concerts & live music
Ticketed, seated evening shows built around touring artists from India, indoors with a live band and a proper front-of-house mix. Vinod Rathod Live in Concert is the next of them.
Comedy & theatre
Stand-up comedy nights and plays, staged indoors in the evening — the shows people ask us for most often, and the part of our programme growing fastest. If it belongs on a stage and our community would love it, we want to bring it here.
And what comes next
Ghazal and qawwali evenings, dance productions, film and literary nights. We are always listening for what Sydney is asking for — and if you are an artist or promoter with an idea, we would like to hear it.
Also on our calendar
Melas, talent quests and pageants
Our melas are the exception to everything above: outdoors, in daylight, free, and open to anyone who wanders in.
Melas
Diwali and Holi — open-air, daytime festivals in a public park, running from late morning or early afternoon into the evening. Free entry, a main stage, food and market stalls, and thousands of people through the gate. Free to the community because our sponsors and partners make them so.
Talent quests & pageants
Indian Australian Idol & Dancing Star, Opera Indian Australian Diva and Opera Miss/Mrs India Australia Worldwide — indoor evening productions giving performers in our own community a real stage, a real audience and a real production behind them.
Why we do it
Around a quarter of a million people of Indian heritage call Sydney home, and a great many of them live west of Parramatta. For those families, a night like ours is often the one time in the year when children see their parents' culture performed with pride rather than explained, and when grandparents hear something that sounds like home.
We have watched a nervous teenager walk off our stage to a standing ovation. We have watched three generations of one family dance together in a park in Parramatta. Those nights are worth every month of planning, and they are why we keep going.
We also believe our community deserves production values that match its ambition: professional sound and lighting, seating that is genuinely allocated, a run sheet that is followed, and an event that starts and finishes when the poster says it will. Getting the details right is a form of respect.
The people who make it happen
This is not a two-person operation. Anuj and Vivek lead the programming and the partnerships, but every event is built by a team of committed friends and community members who work shoulder to shoulder with us — planning for months, then setting up before dawn, running front of house, looking after performers and stallholders, and packing down long after the last guest has gone home.
Many have been with us since the very first mela. They do it for the same reason we do: because they want these nights to exist, and to be brilliant. Alongside them we bring in specialist contractors for sound, lighting and security, because that is not the place to cut corners.
Everything we earn goes back into the next event. It is why our melas can stay free and open to everyone.
For partners
Why businesses back us
Sponsoring one of our events is not a logo on a banner. It is a day or a night spent in front of the exact community you are trying to reach, hosted by people they already trust.
A community that turns up
Indian-Australian families across Auburn, Parramatta, Blacktown and Liverpool — the audience that migration, travel, property, finance, education and food businesses spend the rest of the year trying to reach.
Real presence, not impressions
Stage branding, LED advertising, announcements and stall space put your name in front of people who are relaxed, together and paying attention — for hours, not seconds.
Association that lasts
Our promotion runs for weeks before each event and the recap content runs for weeks after. Your logo stays on the event page permanently, under a thank you.
Come and be part of it
Whether you perform, cook, sell, photograph, or simply want to help on the day — there is a place for you at our events. Artists, food and market stalls, volunteers and sponsors all start with a message.
The people