In his column “Mainstream & Margins,” Rishi Jeyamurthy ’28 tackles high-profile events and the overlooked stories reshaping the music industry.
The globalization of contemporary media is important not only to artistic innovation, but representation as well. South Asian creators have recently made great strides across mainstream film, TV and comedy, yet South Asian music has noticeably fallen through the cracks.
South Asian music possesses immense potential for globalization. After all, one of Bollywood’s most iconic songs, “Chammak Challo” was sung by R&B artist Akon. So how have artists from other regions — BTS from South Korea, Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico and Italy’s Måneskin — achieved acclaim internationally and in the West, while South Asian artists haven’t? The answer lies in the power dynamics of Indian art systems. Indian entertainment institutions have prevented South Asian music from establishing a lasting impression in the West, and deep structural adjustments must take place to make change. The good news is we might already be on the right path.
In India, music consumption is inherently tied to film. Because Indian films are predominantly musicals, consumers are largely exposed to music in movie theaters and through soundtracks. Thus, film production companies in India hold immense power over the creation, distribution and evolution of music.
In the last installment of “Mainstream & Margins,” I discussed the control exerted by the Big Three major record companies (Sony, Universal and Warner). A similar oligopoly exists in Bollywood (the Hindi film industry) between companies like Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, T-Series and Viacom18 Studios.
This highly concentrated power dynamic has led to repetition in Bollywood films. Since Bollywood music largely exists to cater to the narrative needs of a film, there is little incentive for film companies to innovate in their music, and Indian musicians are awarded comparatively less recognition than their Western peers. Musicians often find themselves at the whims of a film’s needs — making it harder for artists to separate themselves and their art from Bollywood. Take playback singer and lyricist Shruti Pathak, for instance, who once remarked that working on Bollywood music held her back from “achieving creative satisfaction.” Indian music industry journalist Amit Gurbaxani wrote that this lack of artistic evolution in recent Bollywood music has played a significant role in restricting India’s presence in the Western music market. The music film companies distribute is what becomes popular, but because that music has gone stale, it has become harder for Indian music to attain global appreciation. Thus, a solution to Indian music’s globalization lies in enabling innovative music truly independent of the film industry.
While major Indian film companies hold substantial control of the Indian music industry, the rise of independent distribution and online streaming companies like Spotify has enabled independent artistry. Now, Indian musicians like Mitraz, Badshah, Diljit Dosanjh and AP Dhillon create cross-cultural art for both standalone releases and film soundtracks — accumulating hundreds of millions of streams and revealing an avenue for South Asian musicians to act separately from Bollywood. These artists represent a trend in Indian music where musicians emerge from the shadows as their own entities.
As a result, they’re already having more success with international audiences. Dosanjh made his U.S. late night TV debut on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in June 2024. That same year, his show in Vancouver drew over 54,000 attendants, making it the largest Punjabi concert outside India in history. Dosanjh also recently appeared onstage alongside Ed Sheeran, who later performed with Indian artists Armaan Malik and Arjit Singh as part of his Mathematics Tour, synthesizing Western and Indian artistry in a great step towards globalization.
What’s important here is the shift in power away from Indian film companies and towards the artists, who are now able to establish names for themselves and better build fan bases around their likeness — not a soundtrack.
Granted, not everybody necessarily likes the idea of globalization. In the Netflix documentary “The Romantics,” actors Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan expressed resentment towards the near involvement of Hollywood companies in 1990s Bollywood. While Bollywood stakeholders may be hesitant to globalize film in the name of cultural preservation, Indian music still deserves to exist as its own art form detached from conservative institutions. Instead of being forced to succumb to Bollywood, musicians should be able to chart their own paths. Establishing a global space in contemporary music for India transcends a capitalist objective. The Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, and appealing to South Asian audiences across the planet with cross-cultural art is key to making art more inclusive and encouraging artistry in generations to come.