“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” – Henry Van Dyke

The auditions for the fifteenth season of the JOY Times Fresh Face were held in The Bhawanipur Education Society College on January 10th 2024, in Jubilee Hall from 1.00 pm onwards. The Judges of the event were Mr. Ruman Ganguly (Calcutta Times), Mr. Rehan Bux ( The Times of India) and Mr. Kaustav Saikia ( Art and Fashion photographer). The host of the event, Mr. Samrat Basu commenced the event by introducing the judges and this annual college-level competition called Joy Times Fresh Face which offers students all over the nation an opportunity to express themselves, display their talent, and impress the judges with their “Fresh Factor”. Many competitors have used Times Fresh Face as a launching pad to achieve success and become well-known over the years. Mr. Kaustav Saikia was invited by the host to come up on stage and enlighten the audience about the JOY Times Fresh Face Season 15 and his expectations from all the participants. His empowering speech boosted the confidence of the participants. The first participant was Rishika Damani and she started her performance by first introducing herself and then carried on with her singing performance. She enchanted the audience with her melodious voice by singing the song ‘Pehli Dafa’. Other participants who performed various dance forms like freestyle, hip-hop, waacking, and semi-classical were Reshmi Das, Kathakali Chatterjee, Reshmi Das, Konkonika Bhattacharya, Chandrima Roy, Gowri Vaidyanat and Vanshika Bhatt. On the other hand, was Julia Emmanuel, a participant who sang ‘Power of Love’ by Celine Dion and her powerful and mellifluous voice won everyone’s heart. Tushar Gupta and Aryan Gupta sang the song ‘Tum Se Hi’ by Mohit Chauhan and the audience enjoyed their performances and joined in by clapping hands to the melodious beats. Alsaba Khan presented a rap written about her own college and Muhammad Farhan Ahmed sang a puissant rap on exploitation faced by women in India. Akshit Ray sang a heartfelt song named ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ by Frank Sinatra and revived the melodies of the 90s in everyone’s heart. Shreyashi Roy sang the legendary song ‘Lag Jaa Gale’ by Lata Mangeshkar and Jinia Roy entertained the audience by singing ‘Chalte Chalte’ by Kishore Kumar. Apart from singing and dancing, the other talent pool that took center stage were actors, including Deep Kandoi who showcased a sensitive and emotional monoact portraying the dark side of human nature, and Anshika Gupta who delivered a dialogue of the character, ‘Shanaya’ from the movie ‘The Student of the Year’. Saheel Faiz with his unique talent of beatboxing left an indelible mark on the hearts of the audience and produced multifarious melodies of diverse instruments with the help of his oral techniques. After all the performances were over, the judges announced the results and Akshit Ray was given the title of ‘Mr. Uniquely You’ and Chandrima Das were given the title of ‘Mr. Uniquely You’. The other participants who were selected for the semifinals were Deep Kandoi, Aryan Gupta, Rishika Damani, Julia Emmanuel, Kathakali Chatterjee, Shreyanshi Roy, Akanksha Nicole Pradhan, Konkonika Bhattacharya, Vanshika Bhatt, Alsaba Khan, Jinia Roy and Ayushi Deb. A fun reel was shot at the end with the audience and the judge on a trending dance step. This event provided a stage for versatile talents and recognized the shining stars accentuating these talents. Reporter- Kasis Shaw Photographer – Ayush Jha