"Brands Now View Large-Format Concerts As Cultural Capital"-Mohit Bijlani,Co-Founder Team Innovation

In the rapidly expanding universe of India’s live entertainment economy, Mohit Bijlani has emerged as one of the key architects shaping its biggest cultural moments. As Co-Founder of Team Innovation, bijlani operates at the intersection of ambition and execution, transforming large-scale concert visions into meticulously engineered realities.

From arena-level spectacles to stadium-format productions, Bijlani has been instrumental in pushing Indian live events toward global benchmarks, blending creative storytelling with operational precision.

In this conversation with Loudest.in, he breaks down what it takes to deliver a 50,000-plus stadium show, why Karan Aujla’s debut is a turning point for India’s touring landscape, and how Delhi is emerging as a global concert hub.

Here are edited excerpts:

After Coldplay, Karan Aujla’s debut stadium show is anticipated to be the second largest single day concert in the live event history of India. What does it take operationally to execute a concert at that scale in India today?

When you're producing a show for an artist like Karan Aujla, you’re essentially building a temporary city for one night. Operationally, it starts months in advance from venue engineering, crowd-flow simulation, emergency response planning to multi-layered security, traffic dispersal strategies and backend ticketing infrastructure. At this scale, it's not just about stage, lighting and sound. It's about transport corridors, medical zones, F&B logistics, artist hospitality and ensuring ingress and egress for tens of thousands of fans within controlled timelines. India now has the appetite for these mega-format concerts but execution still demands global precision adapted to local realities.

What makes this Karan Aujla show different from other Punjabi or international-format concerts happening in India?

The Karan Aujla show is not just another Punjabi concert, it’s designed as a global-format production staged in India. The scale, visual storytelling and technical rider mirror what you would see on a global tour. Punjabi music today is global. The diaspora effect has elevated production expectations. This show reflects that shift. It’s immersive, cinematic and technologically ambitious rather than just performance-led.

Is this concert purely demand-driven, or are you consciously building Delhi into a global touring destination?

It’s absolutely demand-driven, the numbers prove that. But at the same time, we are consciously positioning Delhi as a global touring destination. Cities like Mumbai have historically dominated international tours, but Delhi has the infrastructure and audience appetite to become a primary tour stop. If we want global routing to include India more consistently, we must demonstrate that we can deliver large capacity shows seamlessly.

How are you approaching stage design and production to match international touring standards?

Production today is non-negotiable. We are working with globally benchmarked stage designs, high-resolution LED architecture, automated lighting grids, synchronized pyrotechnics, and time-coded visuals. Audiences are privy to global concert content so the bar is high. The challenge is delivering that scale within Indian infrastructure conditions. We’re investing heavily in pre-visualization, international-grade audio systems and hi-end staging that allows arena-level impact in open grounds.

With audiences becoming more experiential, what innovations are you introducing beyond just music?

Concert-goers today want more than a stage and speakers. We’re introducing curated fan zones, immersive entry experiences, branded installations, elevated hospitality decks and high-efficiency F&B clusters. The idea is to make the concert feel like a cultural festival rather than just a gig. The time spent at the venue should feel premium from gate entry to exit.

Team Innovation has previously executed shows for Anuv Jain, AP Dhillon and Rishab Rikhiram Sharma. How has audience behaviour evolved across these artists?

Audiences are more ticketing-savvy, more willing to pay for premium experiences, and artists who deliver the all-round showmanship. Audiences now expect authenticity plus scale.

Are we seeing a shift from single-city concerts to multi-city touring ecosystems in India?

Yes, we’re absolutely seeing a shift. Earlier, India tours were often Mumbai-centric with maybe one additional city. Now we’re planning multi-city runs with standardized production kits that can scale efficiently. This is critical for sustainability. If you’re building a massive stage, you amortize cost better over 4–6 cities rather than one.

What are the biggest challenges in scaling concerts to 50K+ capacities,infrastructure, permissions, ticketing or artist logistics?

Infrastructure remains the biggest constraint, venue readiness, power load capacity, sanitation scale, and crowd management systems. Permissions are complex but manageable with the right timelines. Ticketing tech has improved significantly. Artist logistics are demanding but predictable. The real stress test is safe crowd movement at that density.

How do you mitigate financial risk when producing shows of this magnitude?

Risk mitigation starts with data, historical ticketing patterns, city demand heat maps, pricing elasticity analysis. We also structure tiered sponsorship models and staggered ticket releases.  Production costs are high, so discipline in budgeting and contingency planning is crucial. You can’t rely purely on hype; you need solid pre-sales to de-risk.

Do brands now see large-format concerts as marketing platforms or cultural investments?

Brands now view large-format concerts as cultural capital. It’s no longer just logo placement, it’s experiential integration. For brands, these platforms offer direct engagement with highly engaged youth audiences. Increasingly, they’re seeing concerts as long-term cultural alignment rather than one-off marketing activations.