How a one-man company is bringing more gaming and anime events to Canada

Dragon Ball. Stardew Valley. Final Fantasy.

These are just some of the big-name properties that Toronto-based Kashamara Productions has worked on. Since its inception in 2022, the company has partnered with studios in the entertainment space to bring their concerts to venues across the country.

Amarasooriya. (Image credit: Kashamara Productions)

It’s a notable feat for a nascent Canadian startup, and it’s made all the more impressive by the fact that it’s run by one man: Prakash Amarasooriya. What’s more, Kashamara is a venture that Amarasooriya, a full-time TD employee, runs on the side. So, that begs the question: what would lead someone to take on such a big gig?

“I’ve been a huge fan of entertainment my entire life. I watch TV, I love movies, I love going deep into the lore of things as well. And while I’ve gone through my career and have done various things, I’ve always been attached to entertainment,” he says. “And during the pandemic, I was watching [this one] anime, and the music just sounded surreal to me. And I was just like, ‘You know what would be a great idea? If somebody took this music and made it heard live!”

While he can’t reveal the name of the anime, given an NDA related to an upcoming concert, he does explain how he took a shot in the dark with it that ultimately paid off.

“I went to reach out to the composer in Japan on his website. I wrote him a 50-page proposal just as a fan. And he loved it and said ‘I’ll connect you with the studios.’ And at the time, I didn’t have a company yet. I was just a fanboy who went too far. But I think he was probably just astounded that somebody went this crazy to write this proposal.”

This afforded Amarasooriya a particularly fruitful opportunity to speak with some studio executives.

“I think through my career, I’ve learned how to talk to business people, but they were like, ‘Oh, by the way, who on your team wrote that 50-page proposal?’ ‘Same nerd you’re talking to — the same guy that wrote this!'” he said with a laugh.

“And so I think that helped build confidence — ‘Okay, this guy isn’t just about the business. He’s actually a fan, he knows this inside and out so we can build experiences.’ And then that’s what led me to go like, ‘Okay, this is not just an idea. It’s actually a company.’ And so I created Kashamara Productions.”

Amarasooriya at Dragon Ball Symphonic Adventure in Montreal. (Image credit: Kashamara Productions)

Of course, with the other concert still in the works, that left him to figure out what Kashamara’s first show should be.

“I was doing research and Dragon Ball was one that was close to my heart, growing up with it on YTV in Toronto, and there was a great company that they’re already in Europe, and they just haven’t brought it over to the west yet. So I reached out to them and I said, ‘Hey, I’d love to bring this over here, do whatever it takes to learn the business as well,'” he said. “So I learned what it was like to be a presenter, so booking the orchestra, booking the venues, getting the licensing rights, doing marketing, doing the financing for all that as a one-person show.”

This was all in 2021, and after two years, Dragon Ball Symphonic Adventure was held in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in partnership with Overlook Events. They even managed to get Dragon Ball singer Hiroki Takahashi to attend and offer VIP meet and greets with fans.

Dragon Ball Symphonic Adventure in Toronto. (Image credit: Kashamara Productions)

But while Kashamara was conceived due to Amarasooriya’s love of anime, he quickly wanted to broaden its catalogue. This year, he worked with Soho Live to present the Canadian leg of Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons, a global concert based on developer ConcernedApe’s massively popular Stardew Valley life sim video game. The sold-out show was held in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal between March and May.

“When it was brought to me as a proposal, I hadn’t heard about the game beforehand. And then I did deep research. I set up walkthroughs of the game. I did a dive into community Reddit boards, Discord and stuff like that to be able to understand the community and why people like it. And then I went, ‘Okay, I think there’s a market here for this.”

And quickly, he was taken aback by the passion of the fanbase. When I bring up that I had a similar epiphany as another Stardew Valley newcomer at the Toronto concert, he says that kind of experience is one of his main inspirations behind what Kashamara does.

“The idea is that any production I put on should welcome people regardless of whether they’re fans or not. And by the end of our production, whatever project it is, they will become fans as well,” he says. “Because we’ve had people who are parents of the people who are fans of the game or loved ones or people in relationships, and we want them to not just be there because of obligations — we want them to enjoy themselves, too.”

During a panel about Kashamara Productions at Toronto Comicon in the spring, he showed a video from one of his Dragon Ball concerts featuring a couple that were invited to the stage. The man in question arranged that ahead of time with Kashamara so he could pop the question in a Kamehameha pose. “It’s what I want to keep doing — finding ways to be able to make those lifetime moments for folks that always positively resonate in their life.”

He says that sort of community-driven approach is especially important amid the general state of the world right now.

“I think a lot of times in this world, we don’t really have a lot of things to hope for with high income inequality, political discourse… there’s a lot of reasons why especially a lot of young people don’t really have much a lot of things to look forward to. And so creating these events, for at least one night, to be able to put that aside and come together as like a community of people, is kind of what we do.”

Of course, the more events he does, the better connected he becomes, and he says his work on Stardew Valley helped him land another major gaming property: Final Fantasy. In their first official partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and veteran Final Fantasy concert organizer AWR Music Productions (Distant Worlds), Kashamara will present the two-night Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour in Toronto this September. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series is renowned for its music, with this year’s acclaimed Rebirth, in particular, garnering rave reviews for its soundtrack.

Announcing the FFVII REBIRTH ORCHESTRA WORLD TOUR!

Immerse yourself in the world of one of the most visionary games of all time with this sensational multimedia concert experience!

Experience all new symphonic arrangements of the music of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH including… pic.twitter.com/SaaIXh8nHk

— Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY (@ffdistantworlds) March 8, 2024

He says the pandemic created a backlog of shows for the TSO, so it couldn’t handle a new show for something like Final Fantasy on its own. That’s where Kashamara stepped in to present the show in Toronto. “[That’s] how I took on the mantle of, ‘I’ll just do it myself’ — pull a Thanos and just put the glove on my own fist,” he says with a laugh. “And so I pretty much started to be a presenter and now working on becoming a producer of these productions. And so being able to do Final Fantasy with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is definitely a dream come true and a testament to how I think our recognition has grown.”

On that note, he wants Canada to be further recognized as being a viable host for more programming like this. That’s because outside of various Fan Expo shows and industry-focused conferences like the Montreal International Games Summit (MIGS), Canada often doesn’t get big pop-culture events.

“I think a lot of times, Canada hasn’t been seen globally for its identity in the arts, which is really unfortunate, because we have actually quite a lot of talent […] And I’ll be honest, I think Canada can do a lot better of a job of highlighting a lot of what we have to offer and showcase what the Canadian identity is about,” he says.

“And I think there’s a lot of opportunity here, because we have our Canadian identity being so diverse. And that’s why you have a South Asian man running a [Canadian] company that puts on Japanese projects, as well as other international projects in a space that’s predominantly European. And I think it just speaks what Canada is all about — that [this identity] can make sense here and also can be successful here as well.”

The Stardew Valley concert in Toronto.

He credits the Stardew Valley experience for teaching him how “there are fandoms everywhere,” and that’s something he also hopes to convey to more companies. “I think a lot of times, what I empathize the most with is especially smaller communities — smaller cities that don’t get that kind of opportunities often. There are a lot of people who are craving that, [but] it’s just sometimes not always profitable to bring it there because of just the production expenses, especially in the environment we’re in now. But I think that’s my goal.”

He says an example of this is the Stardew Valley concert in Edmonton, especially considering Canadian concerts generally are only in Toronto and maybe Vancouver and/or Montreal as well.

“The venue [Edmonton Theatre] told us that we were the first production to sell it out since they did their latest renos, and just being able to hear that in my first time being in Edmonton shows that it’s not so much me or the venue, it’s Stardew Valley. It’s the production itself that carries it — that’s what I want to be able to do.”

For now, he’s looking ahead to next month’s Canadian debut of SSJ Live, a Dragon Ball-centred show at Montreal’s Otakuthon. Later, in the fall, he has the Rebirth concert, as well the Symphonic Anime show in Toronto, Montreal and Boston (featuring music and the original Japanese composers from the likes of Naruto, My Hero Academia and Spy x Family).

“For the productions we’ve put on so far, we’ve been the presenter, and while we will do that for a few more, we’re also starting to look into producing as well. So, creating productions that are done by our company and then going out worldwide to the [U.S.] and beyond,” he says of future plans. “And the idea is that we want to showcase that art can be generated in Toronto, not just a pitstop on a tour. So we’re happy to say that we’re in talks and in production with a few studios to build a few of these live-to-film concerts for fan-favourite animes and TV shows.”

While he can’t yet name them, of course, he says the plan is for them to be held in Canada in the “next few years.” For now, he teases another collaboration with the TSO, as well as a Marvel-related show. He also says he’d love to hold a video game convention in Ontario, citing Edmonton’s recent Game Con event as an inspiration.

“We’re always constantly thinking of new ideas to bring to life, and hopefully, by doing that, we’ll get more recognition from fans.”

This interview has been edited for language and clarity. 

Image credit: AWR Music Productions