We Run T-Series With The Same Passion Which My Late Father Had: Bhushan Kumar, Chairman & MD, T-Series

He is known as the undisputed czar of the Indian music industry. In the last two decades, Bhushan Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director T-Series has redefined the way the Indian music industry works and he continues to be its biggest influencer.

Having taken over the reins of the T-Series empire after the assassination of his father Gulshan Kumar’s in 1997, Bhushan Kumar life story is an inspiring tale of success in the wake of myriad challenges.

In his first ever public interview in the last two decades at Music Inc, exchange4rmedia’s music venture, Bhushan Kumar opened up to some lesser known details about him and his music empire during his candid conversation with Raj Nayak, COO, Viacom18

Here are some edited excerpts from the interview:

You took over the reins of T Series when you were just 19 years old and now you are called the shahenshah of music. What all do you remember about your late father and what kind of influence has he been in your life?

I remember his passion and dedication towards music. I was very young and not at all into the business when I took over. In fact, at that time I used to go to him for pocket money only. I had a great relationship with my father and from what I have known about him, he used to live, eat, sleep and talk music. The kind of taste he had for music was unmatched and he used to make his own music and wasn't dependent on films even when film music was a huge market for cassettes. 

Industry people say that you have almost 70-80 per cent market share in the music industry, how much business do you actually control?

We, as a team, believe in working hard and we don't go by numbers. We drive our company with the same passion which my late father had. I am thankful to my father for one thing, without which I could not have run this company, and that is my taste in music. I believe it is one the most critical things to have in order to run a music company.

Since T-Series has invested quite a lot into the devotional genre, what percentage of revenues do you get from devotional music?

We control the largest share in the devotional market because of things which my late father had already created. My father in that era made all the possible songs, whether it was 'Aarti’ or 'Gayatri Mantra’. He made everything that was musically possible in the devotional space and he did that 10-15 years ahead of the time and eventually, it has become our biggest advantage.

Revenue models across industries have evolved over a period of time; can you tell us about the popular revenue streams in the music industry today?

Earlier it was just cassettes and CDs but now we have digital platforms, mobile platforms, caller tunes, radio and television platforms. There was a time when my father used to get concerned about the rise of online music downloads, saying that it would impact the sales of cassettes. He was even thinking of establishing an alternative business. At that time I was very young and so was my team and we had no idea how we could manage this shift. But today it has become much easier. The biggest revenue stream that has come up is in the digital space now. Even radio and TV are big platforms but these are not the revenue streams on which we are highly dependent now.

There is a perception that T-Series dictates terms in business. Is that a fact? Also with music players like Zee Music etc, and even movie makers trying to release their own music, how is all this impacting you?

We never dictate terms and people can talk whatever they want to. Yes, competition is there. There was initially Universal Music and Big Music and some other labels that came in, some of them settled down while others shut down. But we are always confident about our content, which we make. I think you need only 10-15 songs big songs in a year to drive your business, rest is your catalogue. And I am capable of making 100 songs and we are already doing this. Therefore, we don't see what other companies are doing. I don’t want to disclose numbers, but our profit and turnover are growing every year, which shows that competition has no effect on us; it's benefitting us actually.

There is a new trend of movies becoming shorter and so are the number of songs in each movie, is that impacting music players in any way?

There are films which are musical and need songs and there are films like Raazi and Baby that do not need that kind of music. It all depends on the content of the film; there is no dearth of musicals in the industry.

How entrenched are you in regional music?

We are focusing on regional in a big way. In fact, regional is a huge business area and people are consuming music in regional languages on a big scale. Keeping this in mind, we are available in Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Bhojpuri and devotional.

If an independent producer wants to make a mark in the film industry, can he do it without T-Series?

The kind of platforms we have makes a very big difference. If an independent artist launches his song on his YouTube channel or on the streaming sites, he will not get the kind of value and traffic that our platforms can deliver. If you put a song on any channel and compare it with T-Series, the difference is huge; almost ten times when it comes to reach because of our subscriber base. For example, we brought a song from Saavn which had 50 million views in three months and we scaled it to 150 million views in just one month. It simply shows the power of our platform and our channels.

With the coming of Apple, Google, Jio Music and other players in the digital music space; will it have any impact on your business?

I would say that it is not an easy job to run a music label. We have rights to 12 films a year including big, medium and small budgets. A good number of songs, and songs which people want to listen to, is all you need to drive the business. Though the space has become more competitive, but we have the advantage of our brand which keeps us ahead of the competition.
 
From acquiring movie music rights to making movies, in what direction is T-Series going according to you?

We are still acquiring music and our core business will always be music. As I mentioned, it was my father’s passion and music was his way of life. I still feel that he is guiding us as the owner of the company.  I’m just realizing his dream and taking it forward. His other dream was to make movies and now we are focusing on that too. I would like to share that we are making a biopic on my late father and it is a very big thing for us.

What role does music play in the marketing of a movie?

Music plays a big role in marketing. At times when you are promoting a film, music becomes a very good tool to do it. There are so many channels that one can use to promote if the film has music. If you don't have music in your film, you won't be able to promote it on all those platforms which is a disadvantage in some way. 

Talking about the singles coming from independent artistes, it has kind of died down. Are you doing anything to support such artists?

I am a big promoter of singles. I started this two years ago, because all the TV and radio channels were not keen about it. Then I got Bollywood stars to support it and now we have developed this market. This year we are doing at least 25-30 singles with independent artistes. All new artistes are coming to us and we are promoting them. But when it comes to TV channels and radio stations we face a tough time promoting independent artistes.

What is it that drives Bhushan Kumar?

The passion for music, which was my father’s dream. Sometimes while doing business we face a lot of stress too, but then I’m reminded of my dad’s vision and passion and it keeps me and my team going.