Bhushan Kumar, head honcho of one of the leading music labels T-Series, has come a long way in building his business across continents and making it an entertainment super power. Over the years he has established the label as a leading distributor of devotional songs, regional albums and film songs on various platforms including TV, radio, digital and more.

Besides the label, Kumar also juggles the hat of a producer and is all set to rule bollywood with a platter of distinct films like Talaash, Aashiqui 2, Dabangg 2 and many more set to release within the next year.

In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Chandni Mathur, young music mogul Kumar reveals the future plans of the label and its aim to expand to regional markets down south.

Excerpts:

Brief us on the current ventures of T-Series?

We have planned to release four movies next year and will put a few of them on floors. Along with production, we are still focusing on producing music which is our main forte. We have a strong line up of movies ahead including Aamir Khan’s ‘Talaash’, Ajay Devgan’s ‘Son of Sardar’, Salman Khan’s ‘Dabaang 2’ and many more.

How else do you aim to expand your repertoire?

After making a strong hold in Indian films as a worthy, trustful, number one music company, T-Series ventured itself into production. We successfully gave the audiences movies like Salman Khan’s ‘Ready’ and Akshay Kumar’s ‘Patiala House’. We have movies of completely different genres in our repertoire which include a youth based movie by my wife Divya Kumar titled ‘Yaariyan’, a love story ‘Aashiqui 2’, a rom-com with Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunaal Roy Kapur ‘Nautanki Saala’ directed by Rohan Sippy, Sunny Deol – Kangana Ranaut starrer ‘I Love NY’ directed by Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao and a Milan Luthria film with Saif Ali Khan in the lead role. We are also making two films with Vikram Bhatt which is in the pipeline. Right now, we have enough in our hands. So, music and film production is what I am focusing on currently.

We have heard that you are going to work with Madhur Bhandarkar for a musical film. Tell us about it.

Yes, we have signed a movie deal with Madhur Bhandarkar which will be a combination of his expertise in filmmaking and our music sense. As of now, it is a one film deal but we are building up our relation and hope to do some more work together in the future.

How is your marketing strategy going to differ from each film?

The movies produced by us are of different genres, USP’s of these films are different and thus the marketing strategies differ accordingly. ‘Nautanki Saala’ being a youth oriented movie, we are focusing more on the music with Ayushmann back as a singer and the bonding between him and Kunaal Roy Kapur. ‘Aashiqui 2’ is a brand in itself introduced by my father Gulshan Kumarji so we aim to take this legacy forward by bringing back the same flavour of music and romance with a modern feel. Music will yet again remain the essence of the film with a fresh star cast to mesmerize the audience. ‘Yaariyan’ will be positioned as a movie that brings to the industry a fresh perspective through a new director, new faces and virgin, unexplored locales. While ‘I Love NY’ will bring to audiences an unusual pairing of Sunny Deol and Kangana Ranaut.

Tell us about the thought behind retaining some songs of Aashiqui?

‘Aashiqui 2’ will be different from the previous one. We have retained the romantic genre the movie encompasses but this will be a modern love story. ‘Saanson ki zarurat hai’ won much applause and acclaim back then and people still hum that song. So we are still thinking of how to retain the songs in the new movie to create that connect with the audience.

The style of music consumption has changed over the years. How are you adapting to these changes?

Melodies will remain the same. There were melodies then and there are melodies now. We are changing as per the demands of our listeners. Today they like to hear sufi, fusion, rap amongst others. New compositions, different lyrics make any song a huge hit instantly. Listeners want to hear a new voice, a singer trying new vocals and unusual lyrics. If the song is a combination of these things, its well appreciated and accepted by everyone. Thus, we are also presenting the audience with new singers, new composers and lyrically different songs which make us walk together with the audience demand.

Earlier album sales would ride on one hit film song, whereas now digital releases have taken over. Has this changed the trend?

Physical sales for albums are going down with people wanting to download songs in a click of time. So now music companies do digital releases of the songs. This gives every listener the freedom to download only those songs of the album they enjoy listening to.

Many veteran composers say that Bollywood music today has lost its melody and sounds the same. Comment

I think that as the generation moves on, their choice of songs vary and changes. The music made today is equally melodious as it was before. Melody today means a different meaning for the listeners who want to listen to more popular numbers. Today melody means something that is simple, anyone can sing, a foot tapping number. Melody stays forever. The songs earlier were melodious and even today our music composers still give us melodious songs.

What is the label currently doing in the regional markets?

We are making and strongly promoting music in all Indian languages. There are a huge number of music albums in different languages that has made us reach a wider audience and make music in different genres. Today, we have established ourselves as a brand with music available in Punjabi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani and Marathi as well. We look forward in doing more work in south languages.

Which are the markets you aim to reach out to?

We have made a strong music presence across India through devotional songs, regional albums and film songs. Our reach has widened after the aggressive usage of online and digital platforms. But, I would want to further venture into the Tamil and Telugu film industry.

What kind of a market do you view internationally?

In the international market we are mainly into the music publishing business. We promote Bollywood songs internationally using sync deals and sampling. Selling parts of music for their films, shows and more is handled by T-Series. We have a large reach in US and are looking to expand our market in Brazil. T-Series is not physically present there but our music is available on digital platforms worldwide.

Which are the digital platforms you are currently associated with?

After television, radio, and internet, T-Series has made its music available through the digital medium. We have made our songs available on mobile downloads. Listeners can download their favourite songs, movie images, celebrity wallpapers, ringtones, iTunes, CRBT’s and video clips through our platform.

You received an award for the most subscribed channel in July. What is your subscriber base now?

The subscriber base for our T-Series YouTube channel today is around 555,529 subscribers with a viewership of 536,607,888 for more than 5500 videos uploaded. We had received an award for the high amount of subscribers we achieved in a short span. It helps us get an instant connect with the consumers beyond boundaries. We have now also differentiated the channel into subgroups like Apna Punjab, Hamaar Bhojpuri, Pop Chartbusters, Bhakti Sagar, Shabad Gurbani, Old is Gold and a regional channel.

Being amongst the biggest distributors of music, how is piracy affecting you?

Piracy is affecting everyone in the music industry. This happens especially through internet media. It’s the youth aged between 15–35 years who download music through websites. It’s necessary that they are educated about the cons of these pirated activities. We are thankful of our actors who have a wide follower base to help us support this cause and spread the word to ‘Stop Piracy’. We as a company as well as an industry are taking steps to stop piracy and fight back to the problems.

With IMI launching various initiatives like mobile exchange license and more, do you feel it will help labels like yours in the long run?

This is a really strong initiative taken up by IMI to counter piracy. Music companies are making compilations of songs that are made available in mobile chips which are sold in quite a less amount to the mobile distributors who then provide this to their customers. As today’s listeners prefer listening to songs on their phones or laptops, they buy these chips which are affordable and give them a compilation of the best of the songs from different albums. We have an Artists and repertoire (A&R) that make song compilations on the basis of moods and genres which is easy for the listener to choose from.

We used these techniques during the launch of AR Rahman’s ‘Blue’ music as the platform to introduce music to the listeners on mobile chips and pen drives. T-Series is constantly using different ways like mobile chips to reach it’s listeners before piracy reaches them.

How much do you believe will Copy right Amendment Act 2012 prove beneficial for the industry’s growth?

There are still a lot of discussions and changes to be made to the bill to get the industry a final law of Copy right Amendment Act 2012. So let the law be announced, then as the implementation happens I will be able to talk about its pros and cons for my company.

What are some of the challenges you face as head of T-series?

Change is the only constant thing in the world. As the time changes, we need to change along with it. The new generation demands for music that varies from what we hear five years back. So, our objective is to walk hand in hand with this change and give our viewers and listeners what they like and enhance their taste for music.

How different is Bhushan Kumar the music producer and Bhushan Kumar the producer?

As a music producer, I give my inputs in the music part of the movie depending on its storyline. While as the producer of my home production movie, I am attentively involved right from the scripting, narration, casting, music. I closely watch over the marketing and promotions of my movies to garner a bigger visibility and reach.