Lighting designer Atul Sonpal was asked to design the full stage and lighting show by  Akshay Mehta of Blue Star, one of India's biggest diamond merchants, for the evening show at his son  Aarav Mehta's wedding, and immediately specified Robe ColorSpot 1200ATs for the job!

Nothing was done by halves - the show was staged in Mumbai's CCI Stadium, and was hailed as one of the biggest social events of the year amongst the ‘beautiful people' of Mumbai.

Celebrities abounded, and Sonpal wanted the show to be really memorable for many reasons. Leading Bollywood stars performing onstage for the occasion included Prietty Zinta, Bipasa Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Akashy Kumar and Katrina Kaif. As a veteran of numerous Bollywood extravaganzas, Sonpal knew exactly what lighting was appropriate to reflect the magnitude of the show, choreographed by famous Bollywood choreographer, Ganesh Acharya.

Robe was again his first choice of moving light, opting for 32 ColorSpot 1200s to create his most powerful beam and projection effects. These were joined by 12 Robe Scan 1200 XTs and four Robe Spot 575 XTs, plus nearly 300 PAR cans, all rigged off across several trusses. The lighting equipment was supplied by Sonpal's Mumbai based rental operation - Jagmag Electric and Electrocraft.

Robe's ColorSpot 1200AT is currently the only moving head in India that is available in these quantities.

Sonpal  first studied Nitin Desai's set design as a starting point, and built the lighting rig around being able to illuminate the set in dramatic and interesting ways as well as to give the performers all the razzamatazz they would expect!.

Sonpal programmed and operated the show himself using an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision and also a Pearl 2004 console.

The ColorSpot 1200ATs were used for all the special and gobo effects. "I love the speed, brightness, movement, optics and above all, the easy programmability and reliability of these fixtures" he says, "You can work them really hard and they never break down".

Sonpal first specified Robe fixtures three years ago, and has not looked back since,. He now uses them on all his shows, including some of the biggest and highest profile events in India.