On Saturday, February 1, 2025, Irvington’s Indopak club hosted Dil Se, the Bay Area’s largest high school South Asian showcase, in Irvington’s Valhalla Theater. Fifteen schools, including Mission San Jose, American, Washington, Foothill, Lynbrook, and many others across the Bay Area performed variations of Bollywood-Fusion, Bhangra, Indian Classical, and Raas and Garba acts.
Indopak officers began planning Dil Se in May of 2024. “The first thing we did was schedule all the dates, such as auditions for acts, rehearsals, as well as Dil Se itself,” said Indopak President Esha Ambre (12). The process continued from there, as the Indopak officer team still had many more technical aspects of Dil Se to plan. “We had to reserve all the rooms necessary with the facilities form, create the audition process, and make sure we streamlined communications with everyone involved in planning and performing at the show,” explained Ambre.
Over the years, Dil Se has earned a level of prestige that makes it a highly competitive show for both the performers and the audience. Tickets for both the day and night show of Dil Se sold out extremely quickly this year despite the website crashing within a minute of the tickets even being released, showing just how in demand tickets are.
To make sure that everyone would have a fair chance to get tickets, there was a 3 ticket limit implemented for each buyer to prevent resale of tickets. “We faced numerous difficulties using 5-Star to sell tickets, as the website wasn’t equipped to handle such traffic, so the ticket limit was necessary,” said Ambre. The officer team, along with many Dil Se volunteers, worked with campus supervisors to prevent unauthorized entry through various checkpoints at the entrance to ensure each audience member had a valid wristband. They also closed certain school entrances to prevent people from sneaking in, which has been an issue in previous years.
Behind the scenes, Irvington student volunteers worked to keep the show running smoothly in various roles, such as watching the doors, keeping track of dancers, and many more. “I watch the show from the audience every year and the show always runs so smoothly since so much time and effort is put in. Since this is my senior year, I thought it would be cool to see what goes on behind the scenes and help out the officer team in any way possible,” said Tanvika Kovi (12).
This year, around 50 teams from schools around the Bay Area auditioned for a spot to perform at Dil Se — the biggest high school cultural show in the Bay Area. Ultimately, 23 acts, including 4 of Irvington’s own dance teams, were chosen to perform based on the audition quality alongside how prepared they were.
For teams, preparation for Dil Se started in early October. “As soon as we finalized our team’s roster, the process of picking songs, mixing them, and coming up with choreography immediately started,” exclaimed Irvington Sitaare (Bollywood-Fusion Dance Team) Captain Barghav Balasubramanian (12). “After choreographing the set, our main focus is on teaching it, and constantly cleaning the entire set,” added Sitaare Captain and Indopak President Aniket Kini (12).
“At auditions, we had a few minutes to stage and prepare, run our whole set, and then we received feedback from the officer team and Señor Ballado,” said Irvington Soor dancer Maya Bhimani (12).
Each dance team had an extremely rigorous practice schedule in the months leading up to Dil Se, since teams wanted to ensure that their dance had enough of a ‘wow factor,’ or any sort of stunts, or unique formation to make the crowd more energetic. On top of preparation of dances, the process of picking costumes for Dil Se is also very hands-on. “We wanted to have our costumes match colors, and thus we went with the green for guys and pink for girls,” said Irvington Bhangra Crew captain and Indopak officer Arjun Ghuman (12). “Dil Se is the first dance show of the entire year, so preparation for Dil Se means preparation for everything else that follows,” Ghuman added.
The show began with an introduction from emcees Rosemary Joseph (12), Nadeen Shamoun (12), and Jayant Raj (12), who entertained the audience with friendly banter, introducing each act with corny puns using each groups’ name.
Indopak worked closely with ASG’s tech crew, who was behind the scenes working the lights and sound to make sure that the stage and performances looked and sounded amazing. “Tech crew was a huge help in running Dil Se, especially Katie Fong and Sahil Shah. They handled audio and lighting, which is arguably one of the most important parts of the show,” explained Ambre. Tech crew also assisted Indopak in any technical difficulties experienced at rehearsals or during Dil Se.
After the first half of the show and intermission, dancers and Indopak officers came onto stage in Desi clothing for the Fashion show. Later in the show and before the last act of the night, Indopak President Esha Ambre and Indopak advisor Señor Ballado presented heartfelt speeches about Dil Se, thanking those involved in the planning process and everyone attending.
Dil Se concluded with a 20-minute performance by Irvington Sitaare. The Bollywood-Fusion act followed the storyline of the Bollywood movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which centers on three childhood friends—Arjun, Kabir, and Imran. The trio embarks on Kabir’s bachelor trip to Spain, where he faces relationship struggles with his fiancée, Natasha. During the trip, Arjun meets and falls in love with Laila. They incorporated dialogue and acting in their dancing, making it one of the most captivating performances of the night, closing Dil Se on a high.
While other schools host shows similar to Dil Se, Ghuman emphasized, “Dil Se is the biggest high school cultural show in the Bay Area, and no other school hosts a show of the same magnitude.”
Though Dil Se has ended, Indopak will continue to host various events throughout the year, such as Holi Night in March and the annual Mock Shaadi/Banquet in May, ensuring their momentum remains strong.
