Celebrating 27 years in the music industry this year, Palash Sen took to Instagram on Monday to voice his frustration over the film industry’s treatment of independent artistes and the growing dominance of “money” in the entire ecosystem.
The singer posted a carousel in which he vented his angst and thanked the audience for their support. During his performance at the Repertwahr Festival in his birthplace, Lucknow, on Sunday, he became emotional and addressed his feelings about the “film industry and music labels being unfair” to him.
The lead singer of Euphoria band shares, “Despite being loved, we do not have a single Bollywood song to my credit. Music labels have been unfair to us, but we have never compromised on dignity and honesty.”
The 60-year-old rues that success in the industry depends more on “connections” than on talent: “I don’t belong to any group, have never done ji huzoori, and never asked for favours. People have loved us for decades, so why can’t the industry people see this? Why are connections so important when it should be about music?”
The Mayeri (Phir Dhoom, 2000) singer adds that it is unfortunate that independent music is so dependent on films and labels for visibility.
“Films are using music as a promotional tool. Big labels want half of your revenue share. It’s tough for a band to survive. For young singers today, it’s difficult to work in films. For us, the audience made us survive and showered us with love, but what about youngsters?” he adds.
He adds, “We have singers like Adnan Sami, Lucky Ali… and all are doing good work, so we are ignored. Then an old song (Na to Caravan ki Talash) is remixed and packaged, which becomes a rage like it happened in Dhurandhar.”
Palash reiterated his demand for a music industry of its own. “We don’t have a music industry, and we saw the impact during the pandemic when everyone was given a package but not the musicians. We do have some bodies who look after IPs and music rights, but they are also from Bollywood. Let’s hope the people who matter wake up to this! From my end, I will keep voicing my opinion on this,” he says on a parting note.
