Chennai’s K-Culture enthusiasts turn to Hallyu clubs for song, dance, and conversation

There is a surge of interest in K-culture clubs as members unite to socialise, network and eat out. We meet the people fuelling Chennai’s hallyu wave

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.