India steps into the last year of this decade with as much achievement and anxiety. With a whole lot of mixed feelings, the country moves forward into exciting times. And ironically, the step forward involves going back to its roots. 

We have entered an era where Indian stand-up artists are making a name worldwide, locally produced alcohol is considered the new fashionable drink, small town stories are popular and regional music tops playlists. 

For lovers of the finer things in life, here’s what’s changed this year and what you should be looking forward to in 2019. 

SCREENS AND STAGES
This year has certainly been booming for Indian stand-up comedians. Sorabh Pant, who released his second comedy special this year titled Make India Great Again, talks about exciting times ahead. “A lot more comedians have entered the brackets doing comedy in multiple regional languages. I think it’s reasonable to say the number of comedians on the scene has doubled. And oddly enough, in spite of the rise in this number, the sales of tickets or the popularity of existing comedians have not been affected at all. This proves that there are enough people consuming comedy in India to provide space for more talent who have been waiting in the wings,” says Pant, who has been a part of the comedy circuit for over a decade now. 

With Marathi comedians like Sarang Sathe, Trupti Khamkar and many others striking a chord with audiences, Pant hopes to see a lot more regional comedy content going viral in the coming year. “It will be great to see regional comedy touch upon topics like politics, specially since 2019 is an election year and a big one at that. What’s exciting for most of us in the comedy industry is that there are many diverse voices coming out through various mediums. With so much going on, I have to find new ways to constantly update myself and my material. For the next few months, I am not going to do political humour, I’m saving it for March,” he adds. 

Also released this year was comedy reality show Comicstaan, where 10 contestants were chosen from across the country. And, they were mentored by professional comedians such as Tanmay Bhat, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Kenny Sebastian, Kaneez Surka, Sumukhi Suresh and Abish Mathew for the winning title. The producers have announced a second season next year based on high demand by audiences. Vijay Subramaniam, director and head, content, Amazon Prime Video India points out that such content is consumed not only by audiences from the metros but smaller towns as well. 

“The first season of Comicstaan won the hearts of many across the country and broke many records. Our customers’ response to the series is the key factor in our enthusiasm to bring our audience another season. Customers from across the length and breadth of the country including Tier II/Tier III cities like Lucknow, Ludhiana, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad, Kochi shared their love for the show,” says Subramaniam.

But for some comedians, the art of making audiences roll on the floor laughing wasn’t limited to India. Many stand-up artists such as Vir Das, Daniel Fernandez and Azeem Banatwala among others took their stories to different parts of the world such as Australia, America and the UK to convert fans.

For those who have been ‘Netflixing and chilling’, it has been a thrilling year. Based on the novel of the same name, Sacred Games, a crime thriller starring big names from Bollywood like Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte among others, became a rage among the millennials. Needless to say, the second season of this epidemic is expected to grip audiences in its mania in 2019. 

Nipping at the heels of the hysteria caused by Sacred Games is another all-star cast crime-thriller series Mirzapur. Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani’s and Farhan Akhtar’s banner Excel Entertainment, and available for streaming on Amazon Prime, Mirzapur stars Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyendu Sharma (remember Liquid from Pyaar Ka Punchnama movie?) Rasika Dugal and others. Laughter, sex, violence, realism and imaginative cuss words sum up this year in entertainment. 

NEW BEATS
While the mainstream industry is still in the hangover of creating remakes, there have been changes in the way the audiences are lapping up fresh and regional music. Just like the takeover of OTT has made some Indian series far more popular than any of the Bollywood films released this year, the popularity of music apps has given listeners the freedom to choose whatever they want to listen to, instead of being fed the same set of Bollywood songs on loop on the television or radio. 

In fact, Sameer Batra, CEO, content and apps, Bharti Airtel (which launched Wynk music app) says, “With increasing availability of budget-friendly smartphones, highly affordable data plans and expanding 4G networks, music apps are becoming the preferred mode for consuming music because they offer a highly personalised experience. None of us today carry a separate device for our music needs nowadays and many of us don’t even store songs on our phones,” he says. There has been a very strong growth in regional music consumption as new smartphone users are hailing from smaller towns and villages who look for content in their native languages. 

“Marathi tracks fetch a lot of attention with four out of top ten tracks, the songs of Sairat still rule the hearts of Marathi listeners. Jau De Na Va sung by wonder kid Jayas Kumar emerges as the most streamed Marathi track this year,” adds Batra. 

But Bollywood isn’t far behind. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety which featured the rehashed version of Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia’s Bom Diggy Diggy, Veere Di Wedding, which includes a set of cheeky feminist songs by music composer Shashwat Sachdev and Ajay-Atul’s melodious magic in the Hindi remake of Sairat, Dhadak, seem to rule the year. Batra believes that the new year will see more music consumption shifting decisively to streaming platforms and lesser known regional artists will attract the limelight.

However, when it comes to people in the music industry, 2018 has been a topsy-turvy year. Nirmika Singh, executive editor at Rolling Stones India, recalls how the #MeToo movement shook up the music industry by taking down big names like composer Anu Malik, vocalist Papon and founder of the event management company, Only Much Louder, Vijay Nair.

She then goes on to explain the rise of digital music and how the line between indie and mainstream musicians is blurring. “India witnessed the continuing rise of digital music superstars that didn’t need Bollywood backing — Darshan Raval, Sanam among others. The numbers game (YouTube views, social media stats) is getting stronger by the day and the downside is that many emerging artists are following the cookie cutter approach to get discovered. The blueprint of lines between indie and mainstream music/artists will be a sort of beautiful mess. Is Divine indie or mainstream, is Badshah still a commercial artist when he releases independent songs?” Singh points out. 

The writer-singer also believes that 2019 is going to change the streaming landscape. “Blockchain could change everything in music by means of decentralisation: in streaming, revenue sharing, merchandise, ticketing etc. YouTube Music launched as an on-demand streaming service, competing with Spotify and Apple Music. Despite being a new entry, the option of listening to ‘audio-only’ versions of the videos on its catalogue gives it an edge over other players. Saavn and Jio music joined hands to form JioSaavn, which boasts of a 45 million song strong catalogue. And Spotify India is also set to launch in early 2019,” she informs. 

HEALTHY CHEERS
For quite some time now, Indian consumers have been slowly getting rid of unhealthy stuff on their plates and replacing it with healthier versions. The latest food trend that has excited celebrity chef Amninder Sandhu, who represented India in the Netflix Original reality show The Final Table that released earlier this year, is hemp. “The use of hemp as a protein has got many takers this year, and I’m certain it will grow into a bigger trend in the time to come with more awareness. A lot of people are going vegan nowadays, and so they will not use animal protein. Hemp is a great substitute for animal protein as it provides all nine essential amino acids. It also has many other health benefits for your heart, skin and joints,” she says, adding that these seeds can be easily incorporated in various cuisines. “You can use it in everything, from salads to rotis. Put it in gravies to thicken it or make a paste and use that,” says Sandhu, encouraging experimentation. 

Raising a toast to craft beverages is Manu Misra, chief whip at Moonshine Meadery. He shares how the local production of craft beer and mead is growing at a fast pace. “I am glad to say that mead, as an established category between beer and wine, has finally arrived. The beverage has been a hot topic in 2018 and will continue to be so in the next year. Restaurants in the city have not only given local breweries space on their menu, but also go out of their way to explain the beverage to their patrons, which gives brewers like us a lot of encouragement,” he says. 

Craft gin made in small batches has also made its way to the elite parties in the country. Greater Than, a Goa-manufactured gin has become quite the deal among those who can recognise fine taste, and so has the premium variety called Hapusha (named after the Indian name of juniper berries from which the beverage is made). “There are a couple of craft gins made in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer now but only for export,” he says. 

But the most striking trend that sparked off this year is Kombucha, a fermented, alcoholic, pro-biotic green tea. “I have noticed about six to seven producers of Kombucha around the Pune-Mumbai area alone. It is a healthy alternative to other alcoholic beverages and it tastes nice too. While beer and mead are fermented with yeast, Kombucha is fermented with a mix of yeast and healthy bacteria. It’s like the pro-biotic Yakult, but tastier,” says Misra. You can grab a chilled single-pour bottle of Kombucha at various restaurants across the city.