How to hire an emcee or anchor in Bengaluru

At every step, ask whether GST and travel are in the number. Chandana Vasudevan adds both on top of her ₹45,000 onwards. Jyoti Kochatta adds 18% if you want a GST invoice.

A whole day has its own price. Sushmita Sethia's is ₹80,000 to ₹1,00,000, usually two functions of the same wedding. A company's full day or several days with Raina Dsouza can run up to ₹75,000 to ₹1,00,000, so ask whether that's for each day.

Some sell the host inside a bigger package. One Bengaluru orchestra company's ₹40,000 package has an anchor, performers, a karaoke DJ and speakers. A Bengaluru DJ sells a DJ with a bilingual MC for company nights at ₹1,25,000 and up. If one price covers both, ask who is hosting.

On the night, Jyoti gets the guests up and playing. Her line with this reel, in Hinglish, says a haldi is no fun until everyone is involved:

Chandana's own posts show her starting hook-step challenges and couple trivia at a sangeet, and walking into the crowd at a haldi or mehendi to draw out shy guests. She also hosts company stages, such as a jewellery showroom launch with an on-stage interview in English and Kannada, and a team day for 300 employees.

Chandana's extra is worth it in three cases.

• A guest list that could pass about 200 to 300. Jyoti quotes separately beyond that. Chandana's price stays the same at any size.
• A function that may start late. Waiting is inside Chandana's four hours, so a three-hour sangeet that starts an hour late costs nothing more. If it could slip further, ask her. Ask Jyoti what she charges for a late start.
• An evening that can't go ahead without the host. Chandana returns your whole advance and finds a replacement at the same price. Jyoti arranges a backup host if she can find one, and if not, she returns your advance.

Two things to settle: Chandana bills travel inside Bengaluru on top, and her Hindi is Hinglish, so rituals narrated fully in Hindi or Marwari aren't hers. Jyoti hosts in Hindi and Marwari and charges nothing for travel inside the city.

One Bengaluru orchestra company prices experience the same way: its anchor page charges more than twice as much for an anchor with five years or more on stage as for one with a year or more. Its anchor page and its price list disagree on the price and on the advance, so ask which applies and who will host your evening.

What a host's fee covers, and what it doesn't

Tap a number to see what it is and what it costs.

123

1. 1

   The host, for three to four hours

   ₹30,000

   Raina Dsouza's price at a wedding or social event, ₹35,000 at a company event. Ask what going past those hours costs

   Add to my request: The host, for three to four hours
2. 2

   The speaker and mics

   ₹1,500 to ₹4,000

   To hire one speaker with two mics from a Bengaluru rental company. Ask if that's per event or per day. Raina brings none

   Add to my request: The speaker and mics
3. 3

   Her cue cards

   Yours to write

   They come from the page you send a week before (Q7)

   Add to my request: Her cue cards

Count the hours first. Hosts price different lengths, from about two hours to about four. Sushmita Sethia's ₹25,000 family function, for example, is about two hours, so ask what a fee covers before you compare two.

Then the sound. Of the five, only Emcee Krishna brings his own, for ₹1,650 more where there's no system. The other four work off what the venue, the DJ or the event manager puts in. One handheld isn't enough for a function: the moment two people speak, or a battery dies mid-speech, the evening stops. Ask for a handheld, a collar mic, spare batteries and a sound check before the guests arrive.

Travel is free near most hosts' homes and charged beyond it. Chandana Vasudevan bills it even inside the city. If your venue moves, ask again.

Running late. Functions here often start late, and none of the five has a rate for going past the agreed hours. Sushmita Sethia doesn't charge if a family function starts or ends about an hour late. Chandana's four hours take in the waiting, but her fee goes up if the function runs much longer, by an amount she hasn't set. If your sangeet is called for eight and will start at ten, get the answer in a message.

A reel only shows a room that was already listening, which is the easy part. The hard part is the first ten minutes, when guests are still eating and nobody's looking at the stage. Also judge the fit: someone superb in front of two thousand at a college fest can be exhausting in a living room with forty.

Asking for these is ordinary, so watch how the host takes it.

What to ask for, and what a good answer sounds like

• A few unbroken minutes from a room like yours. Good: a clip that starts before the room has settled. Weak: another edit of applause and one-liners.
• Someone they worked for last month, with a number you can ring. Two minutes on the phone beats an hour of video.
• The name of who's actually coming. From a company, get it in a message, or ask us and we'll find out who will be on stage on your date. Weak: a promise to send their best anchor nearer the time.
• Fifteen minutes with the host before you pay. The good ones ask about your family, the running order and what's worrying you. The others ask the date and the fee.
• One evening that went wrong. A good answer still has the details in it.

Ask how they prepare. Raina Dsouza goes through the running order and has every speaker's name said out loud to her. Jyoti Kochatta arrives an hour early for the sound check and works out the music cues with whoever runs the sound. Nicole Adams does up to two video calls before a conference, and reads the speakers' write-ups so the names come out right.

Raina's own list of what you don't see from the stage at a company event:

A wall of company logos proves little. It can mean they ran the evening, or that they were on stage for twenty minutes. Pick two and ask what they did at each. If a clip or photo carries another events company's name, ask whose evening it was.

Six confirmed their languages on a call with us. Krishna's are from his own posts.

A host who lists two languages may not switch well on a stage. Ask for a few unbroken minutes from a mixed-language room, because that's where you see a host switch. Watch whether the host notices which half of the room has stopped following.

Short notice works if the host's date is free. People ask about children's parties furthest ahead and company events latest.

What the hosts say about short notice: all three who told us their rule take it if the date is free.

• Jyoti Kochatta: no minimum. She has hosted on about an hour's notice.
• Sushmita Sethia: no minimum and no rush charge. She takes one event a day in Bengaluru, so someone may already have her.
• Raina Dsouza: takes a date a day out if she's free.

For the other four hosts, ask, and ask about a rush charge too: only Sushmita told us there is none.

The rest of your job is small.

1. Before you agree a fee

   Settle what the host is running: only the stage, or the cues to the DJ, the caterer and the photographer too. Hosts don't all mean the same thing by it.

2. About a week before

   Send one page. Times down the left, what happens and who's called up down the right: cake at 8.40, speeches at 9, dinner at 9.30. The DJ, the photographer and the caterer need the same page.

3. In the same message

   Every name spelt the way it's said, and the do-not-say list: a death in the family this year, a divorce, a subject nobody jokes about. A host can't guess any of it.

4. 60 to 90 minutes before

   For a company event, Raina Dsouza runs a sound check and marks the stage.

5. On the night

   Someone has to tell the host to begin, and it won't be you: you'll be at the door. Give that job to one person by name.

Two small things catch people on the day. The host will ask where to change and whether there's food for them, usually while you're busy. And if you want to see any of your own function, ask someone to record it: you'll be at the door or on the phone for most of it.

Get the rule for moving the date in writing before you pay. Asking costs nothing while the host still wants your date.

You don't have to ask each host yourself. Ask us and we'll find out what the hosts you like do with the advance. And if something isn't going to plan with a host you booked through us, a person here sorts it out.

If it goes wrong. We found no consumer court ruling in India about a host. The closest is a wedding catering case in Kerala, Managing Director, Prince Hotel v Anil G, decided by the State Commission on appeal on 28 July 2025. The catering order was about ₹3.5 lakh, and it ended with ₹25,000 compensation. The route exists. Your real protection is the message you kept.

Ask your finance team how TDS and GST apply.