Answering!  "Why there is a need to reverse the thought of Film Business Driven Music Industry in India, and How?"

Globally, Bollywood is recognised for its musicals and vibrancy. While the canvas of film genres in India is vast, all films in India are kind of incomplete without the Music. A film reveals so much within its music. Music has the ability to expose a character’s emotions, feelings, actions even film’s tensions. As much time directors spend in carefully choosing their shots, they closely are spending a great deal of time in choosing the right soundtrack too.

Well, I could compile a list of past years of SuperHit OST’s opposing to the box office flops. To name a few from Bollywood, Baar Baar Dekho, Dilwale, Fitoor, Tamasha, Shandaar and the list goes on!

Internationally, The Dropkick Murphy’ gained huge popularity after being in The Departed, many movies procure esteem because of their soundtracks. Garden State (2004) is known for its popular soundtrack, and often times its viewers come away from the film deeply moved solely because of the music’s emotional collaboration with the film’s content.  Some films that receive such acclaims due to their soundtracks are often movies about musicians (I’m Not There, 2007) or revolve solely on music for its content ( Across the Universe, 2007), but music can be more than just a plot device.

The concept of using music to illuminate characters’ qualities is maybe the most overlooked, but one of the most important roles music can play.  We really  LOVE bollywood, and we love their music! But But! We are going to try and understand, why unlike Hollywood and the International music business, the two industries are not independent of each other in India.

“In India, there is a film industry, and music is a part of it. We've labelled it the music industry just to make some noise.” Said Kailash Kher in an interview with Times Of India in January 2017.

Bollywood film music often takes inspiration from folk genres of India. Despite this being the case, you’d see very less recognition or visibility given to the folk music in India.  “We have no organised way of preserving our art. So, independent music is almost non-existent in the country.”   - Kailash Kher in conversation with Times of India.

What is it that contributes to this common and shared perspective of both fans and creators? We have established the fact that Indian Films often gains global recognition for its musical element. We have seen in the past all of the today’s greatest music directors and producers were your favourite Independent artists from 90s. So, what changed from then and why is there a rising belief, or acceptance towards film business driven music industry in India?

If we take a closer look into Hollywood, Transformers has some of the most catchy sounds. It has music from some of the greatest rock bands like Linkin Park, Muse, Smashing Pumpkin, The Used, HiM, Goo Goo Dolls and more! While each song held a special place in the film, they all were actively promoted independently by the Bands and artists themselves.

Here are my thoughts on how can we possibly reverse the thought of Film Business Driven Music Industry in India:

INTRODUCTION OF MEDIA CHANNELS PROMOTING MUSIC INDEPENDENT OF FILMS

Today, 70% of the content on Music Channels, is not even music! - Deepak Gattani 

How Bizarre does that sound? It’s unfortunately true. It is a mix of television soaps, talk-shows, comedy, ads, trailers, news and more! Do you remember being hooked to MTV or Channel V from 1990s? That was the time when media aggressively pushed independent music on broadcasting network. Today, there are 22 music channels in India (Across all languages), 250+ radio frequencies owned by private media broadcasters. Today beyond social media channels or other digital modes of consumption our listeners do not have any mode for the discovery of music independent of films in India. There is a problem of access, visibility and messaging! If this is fixed, I see a great scope in reversing the thought of film business driven music industry. There is also a big problem of increasing content and decreasing media! Are we addressing the demand?

RISE OF A TOURING CULTURE IN INDIA

Have you ever heard of Pritam organising a multi-city tour post a film release, aggressively promoting the film soundtracks independent of the film as an album release? Imagine if that were the case, with every film release. Why are we seeing only actors promoting the music of the film and not the musician himself/herself? What if Indian record labels looked at every film music release differently, and also pushed the overall artist independently? The perspective on consumption of music would be entirely different. This way the listeners would hear the “Music” from the artist, rather than the actors. The whole marketing and promotion pattern needs to be reworked. The messaging needs to be done right!

This is only going to strengthen the existing independent music industry in India.

BOLLYWOOD SINGERS PUSHING THEIR INDEPENDENT PROJECTS MORE AGGRESSIVELY & ACTIVELY

Our all time favourite, Vishal Dadlani, the vocalist of indie rock & electronica band from India called “Pentagram” as well as one-half of the Bollywood music duo Vishal-Shekhar. Dadlani had actively promoted his independent work since early 1990s until 2012-13. He has always been a great promoter of Indian Independent Music, still is! There are less than 10 bands, who lasted over 20 years both live and in the studio, and Pentagram was one of them. But, what happens next?

It’s time that the leading Bollywood music composers put their step down and for once hear what their heart says and not what the film brief is asking them to do. This would establish a brand for each artist independent of the films. The indie-pop era of the 90s, would sustain and scale in the digital age if revived now! With rising consumption of music digitally, Indian consumer is happy to surf around and explore newer music. If their favourite artist (say Arijit Singh) released their latest single, a fan would relate to his music independent of films.  

Do you think KK, Shaan, AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan, Vishal Dadlani, Mohit Chauhan, etc. any of them would be as successful if they started today as Independent artists?

I don’t think so! This isn’t solely because the music consumption patterns have changed today or there is no demand. Demand exists! All sectors of business will automatically come to play, and align themselves the moment our leading Bollywood composers publish their independent content. And trust me, a way to bring back the independent music culture in India is to bring all the top film music composers to push their independent projects too. This is going to introduce our listeners to independent music canvas. This will increase consumption of independent music, this will help the newer struggling independent musicians. This would establish the music industry in India independent of the film business in India.

INDIE ARTISTS AND MANAGERS, STAY FOCUSED!!

It’s not at all easy for our independent artists out there. Indie Giant like Only Much Louder, along with multiple smaller companies, are working every day to uniquely position newer artists, increase visibility and the evaluation of independent music business. There is definitely a relative increase in consumption of independent music, indicating an increase in demand.

The artist’s success should not be defined by the number of gigs they get, or how many film projects are they getting. The success of an artist should depend on working tenaciously to get the edge and get noticed, knowing who your fans are and what they want, makes your success less of a guessing game in the digital age. It helps you to build that direct to fan relationship that is essential for survival. Don’t get me wrong getting the big Bollywood break is great. But, do not forget to position yourself everyday independent of the film music. Consistency in content is going to result in increased visibility, increased demand. This will attract our music broadcasters to push what is in demand! It’s a domino effect! So Artists and Managers, hold on and stay focused! Independent music community is going to play a BIG role in changing the mindset of film driven music in India.

RISE OF QUALITY LIVE EXPERIENCES & VENUES

I can count on my fingers the total number of live venues with a decent quality of sound and stage production in India. Maybe a maximum of 2-3 each metropolitan city. Not more! And there might be a total of 10 high-quality music festivals in India. It is a nation of 1.3 Billion people, 27 states, 7 union territories. But only a total of 20 quality lives experiences to serve the live entertainment demand of our country. This plays a major role in itself in the positioning of Indian music industry. Again the same problem I have been repeating previously, of no access! Where does a consumer go if he/she wishes to listen to live music say in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities? It is getting better now though! 

Our consumer is waiting! It’s a combination of lack of awareness and no access to newer music in India. All you have to do is to ensure music is promoted as aggressively as the film is. Independent music has to be brought to an equal platform to that of Bollywood artists. I can’t think of any reasons as to why this can’t happen?