MUMBAI: ATKT, India's biggest campus-talent platform, has worked with the top college fests in the country to create the ATKT Campus League (ACL), a national championship for college talent that will find the nation's best singers, dancers, actors and poets. Amidst the COVID-19 restrictions and apprehensions around the fest season being cancelled, the ACL has created a more inclusive means for any student to participate in the top festivals without leaving home.

Paytm Insider, India's top ticketing platform has joined hands with the ATKT Campus League as the official Digital Event Venue and Ticketing partner in a 3-year association to build a rich experience for participants and audience.

The participating colleges and fests include BITS Pilani (Oasis), St. Xavier's College, Mumbai (Malhar), IIT Kanpur (Antragni), Narsee Monjee College (Umang), Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi (Crossroads), SRM University, Chennai (SRM Fest), St. Xaviers College, Kolkata (Xavotsav), Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, Pune (Sympulse), BITS, Goa (Waves), Sophia College, Mumbai (Kaleidoscope), LPU, Jalandhar (Youthvibe) and more.

This year, the league consists of digital versions of the participating college festivals featuring five events, as allowed by social distancing norms. Some of these include Hindi Solo Singing, Western Solo Singing, Contemporary Solo Dance, Hindi Monoacting, and Hindi/English Poetry, among others.

Speaking about this, Prashant Sardesai, ATKT Co-founder, said, "Students have perhaps been amongst the most affected by the pandemic, given that they are not only missing out on classes but also the fun and spirit of campus life including fests. Through this first-ever campus league, we wanted to keep the fun-times of college alive, and also give students the opportunity to engage in a healthy competitive environment on a national scale. Though the ACL is online, it will be a real-time experience for them."

The league kicked off with the first festival, Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai's Umang, called Asia's fastest growing festival. Hundreds of entries were received from over 90+ colleges nationally, and the final digital events were attended by nearly three thousand students. In the Hindi Singing competition, one of the judges, Mr. Ankur Pathak, noted Bollywood musician, selected three students on the spot to partner in his own work!

Tanya Malik, ATKT Co-founder, said, "We are happy to bring the ACL to all colleges and students this year. Extra-curricular competitions have been a key part of college life, typically centred around college festivals. However, at a time when creativity and extra-curriculars are becoming just as important as marks in the life of the student, there was a strong need to make the fests more than just individual islands of excellence."

Once students register for the events on the ATKT app (Download Link), the fest organisers will choose top ten entries in each event as finalists. The finals of each category will take place as a digital live event judged by top professionals and experts. The finalists and winners earn ACL points for themselves and their colleges and the top-scoring college across categories wins the Fest shield.

This is just the start of the journey: The ACL points earned by students and colleges earns them a place on the National ATKT Campus League Leaderboards. They can then participate in all of the fests over the next few months in the League to score more points and climb the Leaderboards.

At end of the series, the top students and colleges will win the title of National Campus Toppers in their respective categories, along with a total of ₹20 Lakhs of cash prizes, plus professional mentorship and the creator opportunities across other platforms. The highest scoring college across categories will go on to become the ATKT Campus League Champion for 2020-21.

At each festival event, the audience votes to select the Popular Choice Award (PCA). This again earns the winning student/college precious ACL points to add to their kitty. All the performances, along with judges' comments and points, will be available for viewing on the ATKT app. Further, views and engagement on these video performances, along with points from winning the PCAs get the students and their colleges featured on the Popular Charts, leading to overall National Popular Choice winners in the ATKT Campus League.