Not a good start for emcees?

CHENNAI: Budget cuts have not only eaten into the pockets of event organisers, it has now hit the clan of emcees as well. Apparently, the usual big budget space offered by five star hotels and corporate bashes has been cut by almost 50 per cent, sources in the industry reveal. Suresh Andrews, Director of Livewire Media Pvt Ltd says, “This year, the rates have definitely come down. The maximum that most emcees are making is `30,000.” Other event organisers confirm that earlier Rs 60,000 and sometimes even above were the rates for a big New Year show. With disc jockeys also being bitten by the recession bug, one wonders what exactly affected high flying budgets this year? Suresh responds: “A lot of clients are realising that a New Year’s event is only a couple of hours and so they would rather hire an emcee who is attractive and well spoken for a lower rate, than pay extra for a professional one.” Not to mention, a number of cancellations for lavishly planned events have been received because of the threat of rain, he adds.Ironically, one event co-ordinator lets out, “I heard that a house party was paying their Master of Ceremonies `30,000, but a prominent five star hotel was haggling for `15,000.” Even popular malls around the city are cutting back on the moolah for emcees this New Year. Says Vipin Venugopal, a senior marketing official at Ampa Skywalk, “We usually pay our emcees up to `8,000 for a day of mall activity, but this time, the amount has been brought down by half.” He explains, “We decided that we would rather find a college student who could play some fun games and keep the audience engaged, than a known face who would charge higher.”Asked about this year end let down and several popular emcees in the market admit that the word around town is true. Rebecca Fernandez, VJ and emcee, reveals: “Quite a few of my friends don’t have any shows this year because of the budget cut.” She adds, “Luckily, I wasn’t affected and have upped my rate from last year.” This event host reasons that a large chunk of Chennai’s ‘party peeps’ are in fact in Goa for the recently concluded Sunburn festival and probably decided to prolong tha party for a few more days. Rebecca states, “Unlike Chennai, where the party shuts down soon after midnight, the party continues at Goa till about 10 in the morning!”