Film music hits the right notes

This year has been a mixed bag so far for the Indian music industry, which relies heavily on Bollywood movie soundtracks to keep the cash registers ringing.

Among the success stories was the soundtrack release of music composer and actor Himesh Reshammiya's much-awaited Karzzz, ahead of the film's box-office release on October 16. The music has received a bumper response all over, including in the GCC territories, with the UAE leading sales.

Karzzz's run adds to the recent success of soundtracks from the films Jannat, Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Singh Is Kinng, Bachna Ae Haseeno and Rock On, which has given some impetus to the sluggish Bollywood music business so far this year.

The year 2008 started on a slow note with only A R Rahman's Jodha Akbar managing to cross sales of more than one million units, until Race took the music charts by storm thanks to composer Pritam's vibrant score.

Race has been the best selling soundtrack so far this year, selling more than 1.7 million units. This was followed by another of Pritam's chartbusting soundtracks in the form of Jannat, which is running the Race soundtrack close in terms of sales.

"Jannat's music sales exceeded our expectations" says Karan Lilaram, a senior executive at Megastar, the UAE distributor for Sony-BMG. The only other soundtrack that managed to do well was Tashan, but its performance was short-lived due to the film's box-office failure," he adds.

"It is very rare that a film's music continues to do well even after the film's failure and it is important that a film succeeds for its music to have a longer shelf life," says music composer Ismail Darbar, speaking about the impact of a film's success on its soundtrack sales.

The second half of 2008 rocked the music industry with the soundtracks of three films – Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Singh Is Kinng and Bachna Ae Haseeno – each achieving individual sales of more than 1.5m units.

Beyond the fact that these films were all certified box-office hits, their youthful, trendy music succeeded because it appealed to the younger generation.

"Bachna Ae Haseeno's vibrant music performed best among all our releases, which have included Tashan and Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic so far this year. We believe Tashan's music sales could have gone the extra mile had the film become a major box office success," says Nelson D'Souza, Head of UAE operations, Yashraj Music and Films.

But the soundtrack for Rock On, while catching on among the urban crowd in India, only did well in some segments of the UAE market, such as the big music stores in Dubai. This is probably because Hindi rock music is still a new genre and is not yet everyone's first choice off the menu.

Besides Hindi film soundtracks, the Indian music industry relies on compilations of hit songs, remix albums and private albums to keep the show running. This year Atif Aslam's Meri Kahani and Rabbi Shergill's Avengi Ja Nahin won critical acclaim but failed to repeat the huge success of their previous private albums, Doorie (2006) and Bulla Ki Jaana (2005) respectively.

With no major remix or private album recently that has rocked the musical charts, music store owners had to be content with sporadic successful compilations of Bollywood hits such as Let's Rock The Party, Lambhi Judai and Pappu Can't Dance.

"I believe the genre of remix albums is passé. Though I don't have anything against them, I think they can't match the charm of original music scores, which still lure a huge number of people," says award-winning Bollywood playback singer Alka Yagnik.

But more than changing tastes or the impact of different musical genres, it is music piracy that is killing the industry which was worth nearly Rs10 billion (Dh793m) in the early 1990s and shrank to a mere Rs5bn by the early 2000s. A best-seller in the nineties meant sales in the vicinity of 10 million units. That has come down drastically now to only around two million units in recent years and speaks volumes about how much of a loss the music industry has had to suffer.

Meanwhile, the business will be hoping that the recent spate of successes continues, with some major Bollywood musical blockbusters lined up for release.

There is promise in the air of the year ending on a high note.


'Piracy is the biggest threat to Indian film music'

One regional company has benefited most from this year's slew of successful Bollywood soundtracks, including this month's hit, Karzzz.

Viva Entertainment, the region's largest player in the segment, has cornered the market on Indian music here in the GCC, and holds exclusive licences for Saregama, T-Series, Tips, Venus, Times Music, Big Music, and Yashraj Films. Together, these labels account for 90 per cent of the Bollywood music market. Emirates Business caught up with Sanjay Khettry, Head of Indian Music Division at Viva Entertainment, to take a closer look at regional trends for this cash-rich genre.

How has Bollywood music performed so far this year vis-à-vis last year, and which are the best sellers in this region?

Bollywood music sales haven't been good this year. The year-to-date sales have not matched last year's numbers in the corresponding period – thanks to heavy internet downloading, and other forms of piracy. Having said that, we haven't had as many runaway hits this year, except titles such as Race, Singh Is Kinng and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa. Though Rock On and Kismat Connection have continued selling, the numbers haven't been dramatically high.

What percentage of your music portfolio do Bollywood soundtracks account for?

Mainstream soundtracks still contribute to the bulk business; the main reason being the unavailability of compilations consisting of only hit tracks. Due to contractual and other copyright issues, not many compilations are available in the market. Soundtracks contribute significantly in the expatriate Indian or NRI segment.

So how does market share break down over the GCC?

The market is almost equally split between the UAE and the rest of the GCC countries.

Since you handle multiple labels, is there a chance of conflict of interest in your business?

In the entertainment industry, piracy is the only threat or competition, however you choose to describe it. For sellers, every product is unique purely by virtue of its own content and sells on its own merit; hence there is no competition or conflict of interest.

So how has piracy affected your sales and what is being done to curb it?

Piracy is the greatest curse on our industry, which has resulted in a steady decline in volumes. Street piracy can be and is being contained with effective raids conducted by the authorities, but internet downloads are the biggest culprit. Unfortunately, it is not possible to stop the downloading of music.

What major film soundtrack releases can we expect from your company by the end of 2008?

Going forward, we are looking at launching RoadsSide Romeo (Yashraj Music), Fashion (T-Series), Yuvraj (T-Series), Rab Ne Bana De Jodi (Yashraj Music) and Ghajini (T-Series) in the next few months. I believe these soundtracks will top the charts.