Prashant Rao - Rising Talent. Review on Little Known but Interesting Facts About Music

There are three types of people in the field of showbiz. One – who work essentially for stardom and moolah. Two – those who struggle to survive cause they have no other option. And then there are those who are passionate, focused and devoted to their craft. Prashant Rao belongs to the last category. He hosts stage shows, plays the anchor on television, presents corporate events and last but not the least evokes uproarious laughter with his whacky one liners and awesome sense of humour. “ I am a keen observer. I take inspiration from day to day happenings and incidents and weave it witticism, “ reveals the anchor, host, emcee, stand-up comedian all rolled in one, who has been wielding the mike since the last nine years. Born in Shimoga, Karnataka, Prashant travelled a lot as a child as his father was employed with the maharashtra government. He along with his elder brother saw several orchestra programmes in Nashik and right from that tender he was attracted to the field of entertainment. Once he landed in mumbai he enrolled himself in Somaiya college to complete his graduation in the Arts faculty. “ Here I got ample of opportunities to perform on stage. I won elocution competitions, debates, mimicry competitions year after year. Everybody praised me and that goaded me to go on. Somehow all my friends in college had confidence in me that I would do something special “, says Prashant sitting in the cool confines of Bhaidas auditorium. Post college Prashant worked as an apprentice in Voltas. Later he dabbled as a medical representative with pharmaceutical companies likes Dupen, Panacea and Hindustan Antibiotics. All along the creative germ in him was prodding him to do what he loved the most and Prashant started performing in live shows as an anchor and mimicry artiste along with his medical job. “ I used to meet general practitioners every day who were bored with their mundane work style. I started telling funny shayari’s, anecdotes and jokes on current topics to the doctors along with the information about the products that I was selling. They loved my company and started supporting me because of my unique marketing style. I did fabulous business and even got promotions “, reveals Prashant. It was around this time that he gave a serious thought to opt showbiz as a fulltime profession. “ I was consistently getting good offers and really enjoyed doing stage shows “, quips the talented guy who has performed in Europe, USA, Canada, Africa, Egypt, Dubai, Muscut, Australia.

  Prashant started doing local stage shows before graduating to corporate events and star nights. He has to his credit nearly 1500 shows with the likes Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam, Manna Dey, Sunidhi Chauhan, Alka Yagnik, Anuradha Paudwal, Abhijeet Sawant and has been an integral part of star events featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Govinda, Hrithik Roshan, Mahima Chaudhary, Lara Dutta, Hema Malini, Amisha Patel. According to Prashant hosting is a challenging job and holding the audience interest and imparting information is a difficult task. “ The singers and musicians many a times repeat the same set of songs but the anchor cant afford to do that. He has to be informative, interesting and at the same time touch upon current topics and play with words according to the situation and mood of the programme. You need to have a great sense of timing and presence of mind. Holding the audience interest for three hours is quite challenging. I firmly believe that the audience is the king and they have every right to go home satisfied after attending a show since they are spending money and precious time. I try and give my best shot in all my shows “. Prashant hold his elder brother Srikant Rao( a well known mimicry artiste and host) in high esteem and confesses that he has been his idol since his childhood. “ My brother inspired me a lot and it was he who instilled in me the importance of ‘play of words’ on stage. He has been a great influence “, quips Prashant who has had previlage of performing for Mumbai Police and Navi Mumbai police and in the august presence of politicians like Vilasrao Deshmukh, R.R.Patil and Jagannathrao Hegde. Prashant reads a lot about Indian music and gathers information about films, music, artistes, singers and musicians. He is also equally interested in the music of yore.“ People like Manohar Iyer and C.M.Desai have helped me a lot and have shared information and knowledge about regarding Indian film music “, he mentions. Prashant also participated in the humour show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge on star tv. “ It was a fabulous experience “, he mentions. Prashant is proud of our rich musical heritage and feels that the charm of the golden melodies will never die. “ Inspite of his busy schedule Prashant Rao is leading a contented life and lives with his wife and adopted daughter in Dahisar. His biggest aim in life is to see his daughter Aishwarya  as an extraordinary talented anchor. “ I want her to prove to the world that talent has nothing to do with blood. It has to do with love, emotion, interest, practice effort, and feeling “, he says with a lot of emotion. While Prashant has won the hearts of thousands of music lovers and is a livewire on stage who evokes oodles of laughter with his side splitting wisecracks and humorous repartee. The biggest and most cherished compliment that Prashant received was when the legendary Ameen Sayani praised his hosting and paid rich compliments infront of a vast audience. “ It was one of the most precious moments of my life “, says he in his thrilled tone before resuming back on stage to do what he does best.