Close to 100 young adults gather around the stage, their eyes focussed on a screen that will start playing songs any minute. This is for an ‘RPD’ — a Random Play Dance session where small parts of songs are played in quick succession, and the audience breaks into moves that match the steps in the music video.
Every time K-Wave India, Chennai’s hallyu and K-culture club organises its annual meet, an RPD is eagerly awaited, as is a K-drama and K-pop quiz, and a slew of dance and music performances.
In 2014, when Sanjay Ramjhi initiated the first meet of K-wave India, around 60 people turned up. “We initially started off as a small Asian culture club — some of us were watching K-dramas and Japanese shows as well as anime, and wanted to talk about it. However, K-culture slowly started becoming popular in 2012 and K-wave came to fruition,” he says. Their K-Fest 2023 annual meet in December last year saw around 450 participants. “We definitely would have had more people join in if we had a bigger space,” he says.
The Korean Wave or hallyu, which has been seeing a rise since the 1990s world over, saw a resurgence in 2020. Now, many fans across ages, have made their way to K-culture clubs across India.
While the clubs have a majority of women, several men who are K-culture enthusiasts have joined in the last few years as well.
As the final episode of the hit K-drama Queen of Tears was airing on Sunday night, K-Wave’s WhatsApp group which has over 300 members, buzzed fervently, as they discussed the show. WhatsApp has been the easiest way to coordinate with the many members, Sanjay says, and it is also where he asks them for feedback while planning annual meets and their much-anticipated All India K-pop (song and dance) competition. Auditions for the same are expected to begin this month, and the city’s many hallyu inspired music and dance groups are gearing up.
“We expect that our members do not engage in fan wars. All our events are free since we want the community to be accessible,” he says.
Digging into tteokbokki, kimbap and ramen at the many Korean restaurants in Chennai and making a beeline to the theatres to take in the rare release of aKorean film are also top on the agenda for many. The vast community has resulted in steady friendships, as well as a network that steps up for professional and personal opportunities.
Singer Madhura Dhara Talluri, says that the encouragement from the K-wave community for a gig by the Korean band Lassi & Chai she is a part of, was heartening. “As a Korean language interpreter, this has also helped with networking. Many of us who want to learn and get better at the language, have come together to talk to each other in Korean, which is much better than struggling to practise with an app,” she says.
“Thirteen of us who met through the community got together to form a dance group , Re’verse. Apart from performing at the annual meet ups, and the competition, we have also performed at the Circle of Love festival and conducted K-pop dance workshops,” says Pooja Hemalatha, a social media consultant from Chennai, who heard about K-Wave India in 2019. Pooja also has an Instagram page, @Kdramakimichi where she dissects all things K-drama and K-pop.
She recently introduced her friend, Abinaya Poothathan, to the K-wave community in Chennai by inviting her to their last meeting. While she has been active on on social media as @Kdramadicttt, she says she was thrilled to meet the large community in person, and revel in their shared love for all things hallyu.
It is not just enthusiasts from the big cities who are banding together. An MBA graduate from Salem, S Roshini’s The K-culture Salem community which she started after being inspired by Chennai’s hallyu club, has members from Tiruchi, Namakkal, and other surrounding areas as members. “We partnered with Sona College of Technology and had a Feel Korea fair in April, which had everything from performances, street food, and even interaction with students from South Korea. We had hanboks that people could wear and click pictures in,” she says.
As a testimony to the growing number of K-culture enthusiasts in Chennai, around eight lakh people turned up at Express Avenue mall in 2022 for the Korea Fair in India 2022 (KFI) organised by the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Sanjay and members of K-Wave pitched in, with a hugely popular K-pop and K-drama quiz, as well as dance and music performances to deafening cheers.
The support extended by local institutions like Sona College for Roshni’s club and other colleges that are now beginning to host K-culture events and workshops on campus, has been valuable. Chennai’s K-Wave India has also been backed by the Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea in Chennai for years now, with the Consul-General even singing during K-fest 2023.
“We are always looking for these access points to meaningfully engage when it comes to Korean art and culture,” says Rathi Jaffer, director, InKo Centre, a non-profit centre based in Chennai promoting inter-cultural dialogue. InKo Centre hosted the first meeting of K-Wave India, and their subsequent annual meet ups till the numbers became too big to accommodate on their premises.
Speaking about how the hallyu manifested itself differently in India given how diverse the country is, Rathi explains that these clubs which were initially below the radar have galvanised, thanks to social media.
“The numbers are just continuing to grow,” she says, adding, “Learning Korean for instance is no longer for employability, but has become a passion among many K-culture enthusiasts. We have a 100-student waiting list at InKo Centre and are looking to hire more teachers as well.”
