Tirutsava - Behind the Scenes

Tirutsava is the annual techno-cultural fest of IIT Tirupati. Tirutsava'22 was a three-day-long event that took place in the month of April this year.

To everyone outside IIT Tirupati, Tirutsava is a high profile student festival that attracts students from colleges all around India to participate, compete and showcase their talents every year. To those within the institute, Tirutsava is a product of passion and team work, driven by a vision – to become the best institutional event that connects like-minded people and attracts talent from across the country. The name is derived from the fusion of the words, "Tiru", from Tirupati, the city which houses our esteemed institute and "Utsava" which literally translates to “festival”. It is all about lights, colors, music and magic.

Generally, one or two byte-sized pre-fests are conducted before the main fest to grab the attention of the audience. So this year, the fest was divided into three phases,

• The Inception, to kick-start the Tiru-utsava with a bunch of exciting events
• The Avenue, wholly dedicated to online gaming events
• The Conclusion, the main fest

The success of the fest depends on the backend work done by Team Tirutsava. Behind the smiling faces and sound of happiness on the fest days, there lies a lot of hard work spread out over months! And in this Udaan special, we would like to give you a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes at Tirutsava.

So, where does this all begin? The process of fest preparation starts with the selection of a fest head. This fest head is actually a new role introduced beginning with this year’s fest. The Technical and Cultural Affairs Secretaries acted as fest heads for all the previous years. Srikarah Volaity was selected as the fest head, by the end of October 2021.

“The Head should initially decide what committees are necessary for the fest. He then must do a rigorous process in selecting the committee heads. You can pretty much assume this role to be that of a manager. In many situations, the fest head has the final call. He needs to take care that the committees are working efficiently.”
-Srikarah

And then we have the committees.

• Sponsorship Committee headed by Dhyaan Nayak, Rohith Yerra and Pratham Gupta
• Events Management Committee headed by Anu Anand Anu and Pranav Panicker
• Marketing Committee headed by Putti Venkataraghava, Addepalli Rohit Raj and Likhith Kumar Raju
• Website Development Committee headed by Shubham Raj
• Content Development Committee headed by Krithi Shailya
• Graphic and Design Committee headed by Rama
• Finance Committee headed by Prasanna MS
• Security and Logistics Committee headed by Seeram Pavan and Siddhartha Thota
• Creative Cell headed by Abhimenyu and Lakshana
• Hospitality Committee headed by Prerith Sagar

“So the committee heads were selected based on the interviews taken by a panel of different advisors and myself. Firstly, from the application responses we got, potential candidates were screened out based on their previous experiences, and then the heads were chosen based on the interviews.” -Srikarah

The first six committees were formed by the second week of November. The other four committees were formed by mid-January.

“There was this ambiguity about whether the fest would take place offline or online. And some committees, for example take creative cell, would function only when the fest takes place in offline mode. So initially we formed the committees that would function, regardless of the fest being offline or online. Once I got confirmation that the fest would take place in a hybrid mode, I formed the other committees.”
-Srikarah

The committees were formed, keeping in mind the different types of necessities we would encounter in conducting a fest. Now that we have seen what committees were part of this fest, let's dive into what work each one does.

“As part of the Events Management Committee, as the name suggests, we deal with the management aspect of fest activities and events. We were involved in planning around 30 to 35 events. We classified them as literary, cultural, or technical.”
-Pranav

“As part of the Content Development Team, we deal with all of the content-related stuff of the Tirutsava, including works like WhatsApp forwards, captions for posters, Instagram, sponsorship proposals, etc. Basically, all written and digital material.”
-Krithi

“The website development committee takes care of all the frontend and backend of the Tirutsava website. We basically add events to the website alongside their descriptions and posters and report back to the corresponding teams with information about the registrations for all events. We also take care of the merchandise-related logistics too.”
-Shubham

“The Sponsorship Committee takes care of all funding required to conduct the fest. We also call upon stalls which were set up during the fest. We do have work even after the fest ends since some companies will choose to give funding only after the fest completes. At the beginning, when the committee was formed, we set an initial target of sponsors to get and will start working to get them.”
-Dhyaan, Rohith

“The Graphic Design Committee takes care of all the graphics and design related work of Tirutsava. We make posters for every event, submit designs for the website and prepare designs for offline marketing like banners, pamphlets, and brochures. We also create some designs for the creative cell.”
-Rama

“So, the finance committee is basically taking care of how the budget for the whole fest is planned out and how we are going to channel those funds that the sponsorship committee managed to get. The work comprises all planning sorts of things. We would try to optimise funds in the channels the other committees have spent towards and take care of the technical and logistic difficulties of fund management.”
-Prasanna

The selection of core members did not take much time after committee heads were elected. Mails were sent out asking interested people to join the committees. Based on the responses received, interviews were taken, and potential candidates were screened out and selected as core members. Now the selection criteria depends on what committee you want to join. Prior experience and essential skills are necessary for getting selected. Some committees may also require you to have technical proficiencies. Take, for example, the Web Development Committee, which requires you to build the website and have experience in various frontend libraries. Also, for getting a place in the Graphic Design Committee, you should be comfortable with using Adobe Photoshop and Canva.

With the right team set in, the work for the fest started quickly. But won’t it be nice having a goal and a vision to work for? So let's hear out what vision our heads had for this fest.

“My vision for the fest is to rekindle the energy back into the college from the pandemic dullness.”
-Srikarah

“My goal was to make the fest more friendly and captivating enough. It shouldn’t feel like it is somebody else’s fest; you are participating in your own fest. The content should make us feel that this is our fest.”
-Krithi

“Our vision was to prepare a hybrid fest as there was so much ambiguity regarding offline fest, and we didn’t want this to affect the committee's work. We want our fest to reach out to more students and institutes outside Tirupati. Making it hybrid will help us achieve this.”
-Anu Anand

“At first, we thought the fest was going to be offline. But then there was covid third wave spread, and many covid restrictions were imposed on the campus. So our vision was to conduct the fest offline so that there would be minimal covid spread from people who come from outside the campus. But since the restrictions were lifted, we were mainly focused on checking any unwanted incidents due to outside people entering the campus.”
-Siddhartha, Sreeram Pavan

But not everything will go smoothly, and the team has faced many challenges while planning for the fest. The biggest one is the ambiguity due to the covid third wave and its effects on sending everyone back to the online phase.

Communication and coordination are essential aspects of an event, whether within or amongst various teams. Effective communication is a must to divide work and get it done efficiently. Making a highly diverse event like Tirutsava a success involves the working of several committees in tandem with each other. With the online-offline nature of the fest and several gaps during the entire planning phase, our committees had a herculean task keeping up effective communication and coordination among each other.

The content team, which was involved in coming up with new ideas, felt offline mode was a much better place to jam on new ideas.

“As it was online, I think ideally we did whatever best we could, whilst offline we met a lot of times and brainstormed together, but as it later transitioned to online again, we couldn’t sit together and laugh and get it done.”
-Krithi

On how well the content team is working, the content head adds,

“I think it is pretty chill since it is a small college and we are passionate about writing; hence we gather around and work on any opportunity to write stuff; since we already know each other, we don’t have to use the time to open up.”

“Getting sponsors for the fest is not an easy task, and this job is highly demotivating since you know companies sometimes will directly turn down your offer. Initially, it was very hard to manage but our core team is very supportive. Even if one of us was depressed or demotivated, the other members used to give us motivation.”
-Rohith Yerra

Well, communication was not a cakewalk for every committee.

“My co-members did not work as a team sometimes. They would focus on their individual parts and think, "I only need to do this". They would do some styling for themselves and not care whether it would malfunction or negatively impact others' work or not." -Shubham

“The team members were somewhat demotivated in the month of January itself and that’s the same case last year. We were having regular meets and telling them that this is the way things happen and they were supportive to some extent. Once the team is supportive, we can get stuff done.”
--Rohit Yerra

“To design posters and similar things, one needs to be good at using Adobe Photoshop. But my team initially faced difficulties in using it. At first, when we were working offline, I thought of taking workshops to teach Photoshop basics and all, but everything changed when we went online. It was quite difficult to conduct those zoom sessions. So in that online phase, I used to do most of the work. Only after coming back again offline did I make sure everyone is working equally.”
-Rama

However, some committees completed their major job well before students were asked to return home because of the third wave. And therefore, they did not face any problems in communication while being online.

"No, not really, as until then, most of the parts were done."
-Shubham

“There were not many problems; of course, we were sent home, but we managed in the gap that we had, and it was cool!”
-Pranav

The hospitality team, in one instance, faced certain coordination issues when they had to receive guests on two fronts simultaneously. The good coordination among the team members helped to run this operation smoothly.

“When Mr. Sreerama Chandra would arrive, I needed two coordinators to be there. So, the core team of hospitality and I went to receive him at the airport, and all of a sudden, we had to receive students who had arrived from Chennai. Transportation was a problem and we sent a few students back here. But one of the coordinators who had to receive Mr. Sreerama Chandra had to leave. So, I asked a coordinator from another department to bring someone in. Coordination and stuff were not a problem. Everyone understood the main problem, i.e., Covid. We didn’t have exact planning for transportation at least. They cooperated very well.”
-Prerith

Planning out any event and making it enjoyable involves the contribution of many committees. For instance, the events management team worked with the sponsorship, design, content, and decoration committee to plan an event properly.

The content team head says they worked the most with the design people. She explains,

“We worked the most with the Design team since if you go to Instagram, you see the content and the caption. Design and content go together. I worked with the design team head the most and, of course, the sponsorship committee.”
-Krithi

The hospitality team head says they worked with logistics, security, and the transportation committees to make arrangements for students and guests who would visit the institute during the fest. The three groups were essentially combined to work as one, he explains.

When it comes to managing and executing plans, there are bound to be errors and delays. The planning of this year’s Tirutsava started almost three months late, which made the scheduling very tight. The ambiguity regarding if the fest would be online or offline did add some extra pressure on the committees.

The content team head comments, “A lot of work pressure since its content. It’s not what people say; it’s just a message; they don’t understand the fact that there is a team involved; it takes a lot of work. It is teamwork. A lot of work pressure in the last two months and plans were also changing, and as plans change, you have to write everything again.”

The events management team worked about this pressure by planning for both scenarios.

“We were making plans for both scenarios; hence it did not affect. I feel we didn’t have that much pressure as we had much time for preparation and extended time due to the April fest. Dividing the work between core and then having them guide the coordinators; hence the work wasn’t just on us; it was divided. The pressure was off us. I am proud of the team. They did a good job.”
-Pranav, Anand

Most of the pressure began to build up in the few weeks to the run-up to the fest when things started getting into the execution phase.

“Most of the companies and artists will not confirm until the last week whether or not they will sponsor the fest or not. There are some companies which will not convey their decision until the last moment. One sort of standard response we used to get is that, they will say “Please send your proposal we will look into it” and then after a few weeks if you remind them they will reply “Sorry I got your proposal but didn’t have time to look into it”. These sorts of things are very common.”
-Dhyaan, Rohith

The web development committee responsible for keeping up with the registrations had to take steps to resolve issues at the earliest.

“Basically, work pressure was equal for everyone. As Tirutsava came up, we were getting more requests about registration, bugs, and all. We need to look into it quickly; we could not delay registration.”
-Shubham

The finance committee also agrees on the increasing pressure nearing the days to the fest.

“Pressure has been only for the last 2-3 weeks because we did not make any transactions before that. I was going out a lot during the day. More than stress, I would say it is just tiring.”
-Prasanna

“As things got nearer, various committees gave us design-related work, like posters and banners to make, with very few days deadlines. And also, they will continuously ask us to make changes since everything won’t fit completely on the first try itself.”
-Rama

The main work of the hospitality committee, which included receiving guests, accommodating their stay, transportation, and other logistics, started just a few weeks before the fest.

“For the last three days (of the fest), I didn’t even sleep. Many students were from different colleges, and we needed to drop them back. I guessed you noticed the huge buses outside the campus. We accommodated everyone on the bus and sent them back. By the time we used to come back, it used to be around 3:30 in the morning. Again, in the morning, from 7 o’clock events used to start, so we needed to get ready by 6:30; we used to sleep in TC1 which was like the control station for all the heads. These last three days for the three departments, i.e., hospitality, security, and logistics, will be hectic.”
-Prerith

Planning properly before time and getting prepared for all scenarios is the best way to deal with this pressure, is what most committee heads advised.

The hospitality head adds, “If they have a good set of core members among them, then your work will be a bit easier. Planning accordingly is important.”

The committee heads kept themselves entertained and motivated with movies, music and fun. They feel it made things easier and helped them focus on the task at hand.

“Nothing, we just did some music, etc... Saying let's just take a break, we will do it some other day, not a big deal. Even if it got delayed by 1 or 2 days, it was not a big deal. We can handle it.”
-Shubham

“You let out your frustration and focus. That’s the way to deal with it.”
-Krithi

“Movies, songs, etc. That's how I managed my stress and pressure.”
-Rama

Working forward when everything is going your way is appreciable, but working and improvising even when your entire plan has flipped over takes a lot of grit and effort. Our committee heads had their big plans and expectations from Tirutsava. But naturally, not all went by the book. Expectations and reality are not the exact replicas after all.

The graphics team head who needed people with good photo editing skills explains this rude wake-up call.

“When I asked them to make children's day posters, most did it in Canva and I realized they don't know Adobe Photoshop or something. I realized I had to teach them. In the middle, it went online again, so I thought it would be easy for me to teach them Adobe Photoshop. But things didn’t go in that way. Just that you know, initially I thought everything would be cool and it would go out as planned. But the reality is it doesn’t.”
-Rama

The finance committee head had plans to fully optimize the financial resources available. However, time constraints didn’t allow him.

“Honestly speaking, I would say that whatever I had as a vision was not practical. I was being forced to make decisions on a lot of bills and transactions that were made at the last moment with no time for optimization. I had to make sure it was done because there was no time to wait. I couldn’t do much cost-cutting.”
-Prasanna

The sponsorship committee head felt that his expectations were far off the mark.

“I thought initially that this work is pretty chill. I applied for this position without thinking if it would be online or offline. I thought it would be online and it is going to be pretty chill like in 2021. But there was an interval when I spoke with the previous heads and they told me how much of a responsibility it is. So within two or three weeks I got a clarity that this is not a position I can take for granted.”
-Rohit Yerra

One of the major spoilsports was when the students were asked to return home in view of the third wave.

“The main expectation was to have stayed here and completed preparation offline; reality hit hard when the third wave hit us. We had experience working online and hence we were able to manage the mix mode. It wasn’t that difficult. Our expectations matched reality.”
-Pranav

One learns from experiences and mistakes. Our committee heads learnt a lot from their tenure as heads. Not just management skills but something more.

“I learnt to handle people, and communicate with them as a team leader. I also learnt How to cope with all this stress.”
-Shubham

“I learnt how not to get frustrated, how to not take much stress. I also learnt that one should not take all judgements seriously.”
-Rama

The finance head adds that there is probably nothing as a committee that needs no effort.

“If you need to be something or take up a responsibility, as such, there is a lot of effort. Honestly speaking, I took up finance head because it was less effort. My point is that there is no committee that goes with less effort. So what I learnt is that if there is a role, everything is of significant effort. Maybe sometimes it is equally split but it does happen that you need to put everything all at once.”
-Prasanna

“I learnt how to motivate people to do a job; how I should behave with each one differently; They might be in different situations; deal with that situation.”
-Anu Anand

“As a person it taught me two things. How to manage people and the other about companies. It taught us how to communicate with companies.”
-Dhyaan

“It taught me how the coordination between team members should be, how information should be passed around and everyone should take responsibility. It also taught me how important it is to have business and communication skills in addition to technical skills. I learnt to put forward my ideas.”
-Rohit Yerra

The content head feels that she learnt to say no and be assertive about it when the time comes.

“I think I learned a little on prioritizing stuff like a head; I am always a core member and often, a lot of work is handed to me. As head, I had to delegate it to people. I learnt to say no to people.”
-Krithi

The positions of fest head and committee heads are very important. They have very little room for making any errors. The position involves a lot of pressure at times while taking crucial decisions. We don’t know what’s ahead of us; the heads need to be prepared to face whatever lies ahead.

They say experience is the best teacher. But it is also equally important to learn from others’ mistakes. Especially when one is in the role of a head, one needs to learn from the experiences of previous heads and get ready beforehand.

So let's hear out what our heads had to say for the upcoming heads.

“Dear next-fest-head, the first important thing I have to say for you is that you should be able to manage your time well. You might think that you have a lot of time when actually you don’t have it on the ground. Also, be cautious of the people working under you and ensure that they are working. If possible and if you think it is necessary, add in a few more committees to distribute the work more evenly.”
-Srikarah

“The next heads have to make a proper study on what they have to do and their plans. They should learn from our mistakes. And also contact previous heads. Focus on marketing and sponsorship. You need to look at what sort of events went well this year and communicate with other students. Get to know which aspects of the generalised events are popular and what they enjoy doing in them, and chalk out a proper plan for two to three months after heads are selected.”
-Pranav, Anand

“For the content committee head, work will be simple if you are into writing. Also, make sure that your team is closer than ever because if one person is not able to work then someone else will cover for them. Otherwise, chill out!”
-Krithi

“For the next Hospitality head, you need to take care of the dates and artists booked. Don’t take these things lightly. Apart from this, select your core team properly. Don’t just select your friends because it won’t work later.”
-Prerith

“For the next graphic design head, I would suggest that you take care that your team is well equipped with essential skills like Canva and Photoshop. Make sure that they are doing all the work properly. At first, they may not be completely perfect but they will gradually learn.”
-Rama

“For the next web development head, please appoint your core members on the basis of their backend development skills. Because adding content to the website is not a difficult task. But managing the backend of a website is difficult, so bring in students who are good at backend development.”
-Shubham

“If you take up the post of finance committee head, I would suggest you first go talk to the fest head and tell him or her that "this is my post, let's draw a line, this is what I do. If something is related to my committee, it goes to me, not you". This way you will get a centralized view. And avoid doing stuff at the last moment. Once you know a lot, you can optimize where you don’t know a lot; you cannot exercise skills/plans that you don’t have.”
-Prasanna

To conclude, working for the fest is a different sum of experiences and emotions. It is a test for your skills and mental levels. But the heads of Tirutsava'22 ensured that taking this up would be a loving challenge. After all, it is our college fest and only we can make it a successful one. We hope you enjoyed these interesting insights and join us in looking forward to an electrifying Tirutsava next year!

A special thanks to V Sathyanarayann, G Swathi and Sneha M S for their initiative, time and support in conducting the interviews amidst the chaos of the fest.