CRASH CRUNCH HITS CONCERT SCENE 
Laxmikant-Pyarelal, who started their “star nites” or “events” way back in 1964 and became the talk of Europe 20 years later, when they cajoled Rajesh Khanna to join their troupe on tour, and then pulled in capacity crowds at London’s Albert Hall the same year, admit that they haven’t gone on a concert for the last couple of years. “We were the kings of the concert scene. Our musicians were given 5-star accommodation, Laxmi and I got four tickets each for our families and one for our secretary. There was good money to be made. But today we’re always in the danger of being cheated. The only way to avoid this is to pack your concert with big stars. That has always been the star attraction of our troupe, but now just about everyone’s doing a concert with a bhelpuri mix of composition. Woh maza gaya,” sighs a dispirited Pyarelal.

The other regulars on the concert scene not so many decades ago, Kalyanji bhai of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, is virtually bed-ridden due to failing health. The veteran though, tells you with pride that he and his music director-partner Anandji were the ones to start the trend of star nites, at least a decade before L-P. “We were the ones who cajoled a reluctant Hemant Kumar and Mukesh to come on stage,” Kalyanji says proudly. Kishore who also had absolutely refused to sing on stage was persuaded to change his mind in ’58-’60 when he was going through a financial low. “He joined our troupe to make a fast buck and our nites became even more popular,” the veteran recalls. Later, Amitabh Bachchan joined them with the always-in-demand Mere angne number and a huge orchestra, and their shows were sell-outs as soon as they were announced.

Today it is concerts arranged by the Kalavir Academy set up by Kalyanjibhai two years ago, and the little wonders they’ve discovered, who are carrying Kalyanji-Anandji’s concert tradition to new heights. “So far we’ve had 185 stages of the Little Wonders and our best was the one at Gujarat, during which the chief minister was present and very impressed with the child prodigies. One of these shows did a business of Rs 50 crore. The children are our future and it’s they who can continue to pull in the crowds for these concerts,” maintains Kalyanjibhai.

Pulling in crowds has becoming a concert organiser’s nightmare of late. Even with some of the biggest names in showbiz, several recent shows haven’t made much of an impression. Even Talat Aziz, the crowd-pulling ghazal singer, who performed before capacity crowds at Hyderabad recently despite sudden showers, agrees that the going has been slow these last 10 months. Talat performs 2-3 concerts on an average every month, and in peak season it’s as many as 8-10. He has avid fans all over India... UP, MP, the East, Hyderabad and now Bangalore in the South. And abroad in America, the Middle East, Australia and even Africa in smaller numbers. “Anyone who likes romance, sensitive lyrics and understands Urdu poetry enjoys my ghazals, be it the filmi ones from Bazaar, Umrao Jaan or Daddy or Khubsoorat aankhen teri and Chanda teri chandni from my private albums, or the title songs from my serials Ghutan and Sailaab . And it’s not just the older generation who crowd my concerts. All the kids are singing my old hits today. Yesterday, when I was having dinner with friends, I was amazed by the requests coming from the 20-year-olds,” he exults. Ghazals, you’re informed, are back among the favourites. But, the singer rues that this year has not been a happy one for the industry “despite this being the 50th year of India’s independence”.

Yes, it is surprising that despite the golden jubilee celebrations going on all over the country and yes, all over the world too, singers and music directors aren’t getting that many offers for starry nites. Even an artist like Ila Arun who confesses that interacting with the audience live gives her a high, and the response she gets has always been tremendous, confesses that it hasn’t been a very happening year. “It’s so frustrating. Maybe it’s the satellite boom which has lead to innumerable repeats of the latest chart-toppers and waning interest in them. But, on second thoughts, I’d think people are still interested in seeing singers like us live. Maybe it’s the economic depression,” she moans. “No one wants to pay and those who are willing to pay cannot always be trusted.” Yes, Ila’s become very wary of accepting offers from never-heard-of organisers. “I’ve never been tempted with large sums of money and never come in contact with the dons and bhais everyone is talking of today, but there have been times when I’ve been cheated by musical pimps,” she confides.

She remembers the time she was flown out to a strange city, and after putting up a great show realised that the money men had melted, and she and her troupe even had to pay for their ticket back to Mumbai. “Once you reach your destination there’s no way you can opt out before the curtain goes up, even when you realise you’ve been taken for a ride, because chances are you’ll be mobbed and the pandals will be burned. My fans in Bengal in particular, are a passionate lot and a last minute cancellation of a concert they’ve been waiting for for months, can make them very frustrated,” Ila points out. Despite this, Ila never tires of performing all over Bengal, where her fans don’t mind sitting through a concert all night. “The first time I performed at the Salt Lake stadium after the Choli wave, they burnt mashaals like they do when India wins a cricket match. It was a wonderful sight,” Ila recalls. However, she admits that today the only way anyone can get her to the ‘City of Joy’ is by giving her a cheque in advance and drawing up a proper contract well before the show. “We have to learn from the West, the business has to be systematised,” she asserts.

The Sandese aate hain singer Roop Kumar Rathod, who’s been performing for the last 10 years, and has so far done over 10,000 concerts, also admits that he had some nightmarish experiences in the initial stages of his career, when he sang for just about anyone for as little as Rs 500-Rs 1000. Once he remembers Sonali and he were in Hong Kong for a Diwali concert. The day before they were to take the flight back, a man whom they knew well and called uncle dropped in and convinced them to come over to his place for a private concert. There were at least 200 people present, and food and booze flowed freely as Rathod sang one song after another till 5 a.m. The next day Rathod went to his office expecting a cheque for his efforts, only to be handed some petty cash and a reproving lecture, “Have you gone mad asking me for money? Do you know how much I spent on the food and booze?” That certainly silenced the bemused Rathod who after many such nightmarish experiences, has decided that now he’ll play safe and only fly out for foreign jaunts — he goes for 10 days at a stretch and packs in as many as 15-20 shows — when he’s given a draft in advance. “Even cheques are dicey and can bounce,” he sighs. “I also insist on confirmation letters with a programme schedule because I don’t want any slip-ups on chain bookings.” Rathod agrees that his two chartbusters from Border are much in demand at his concerts now, but he doesn’t really like singing film songs. “I’m a classical singer and I prefer singing ghazals, semi-classical numbers, bhajans and thumris. Of course, what I like best is doing a rendition of the Raag Bhairavi which is some 200-300 years old. I hate breaking out of my parampara and who says there’s no audience for classical music. I have youngsters coming to me to learn the classical stuff,” Rathod informs.

Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma who’s been performing for the last 45 years, and who spends almost seven months of the year on tour, agrees that his audience has increased in the last four decades. “In the early ’50s I had only a few thousand listeners. Now on festival nites I find an audience of 15,000 plus and 50 per cent of them are youngsters,” asserts Panditji. He goes on to inform that recently he had a lecture demonstration at Pune’s SP College and was surprised to find 12,000 students waiting for him. In August, 2,500 students of Delhi’s Modern School attended the two-and-a-half-hour demo. At inter-collegiate festivals like Malhar and Mood Indigo, Indian classical music and Pt. Sharma’s speciality, the santoor, gets a lot of exposure. And the maestro is pleased to find that today youngsters have moved away from the sitar, guitar and harmonium to string the santoor. Even abroad, he goes on to inform, 90 per cent of his audience are Europeans and he always finds an enthusiastic crowd waiting for him in Germany, Holland and Switzerland. “In April last, when I performed in the USA with my son Rahul, I was overwhelmed by the response and now I’m again flying off to New York for a show commemorating 50 years of India’s independence, where I’ll be sharing the stage with Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pt. Jasraj and Ustad Vilayat Khan. I’m sure we’ll again draw full houses,” he says with complete confidence.

Sharon Prabhakar also jetted off to China recently for a demonstration of her fire power at another round of jubilee celebrations.

If our singers are finding an audience abroad, then foreign groups and singers are getting a rousing welcome at home. When the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson, landed in Mumbai, though he’d been dismissed by the Boring Institute of New Jersey as the seventh most boring celebrity in the world, his concert was insured for Rs 20 crore and Wacko Jacko was greeted by hysterical fans. Close on his heels followed Stereo Nation, The Spice Girls, Jon Bon Jovi and Code Red and Air Supply are on their way. However the pop invasion of international biggies haven’t cut the Anaidas and Mehnazs out of business.

Says Miss India Mehnaz, “We’re on our way to evolving our very own pop culture and like they did in the West, today Indian artists are realising the importance of performing live shows. The appeal of concerts may have waned in the cities because every channel is showing at least one of our hits every hour, and the satellite boom has reduced our efforts by 90 per cent, no doubt. But in the interiors, in particular the mini metros, people starved of any form of entertainment with the exception of films, still crowd our concerts in wide-eyed wonder, hoping that they’ll get to hear many more numbers whose music videos are not out yet. At the Channel V Roadshows, I had an audience of 20,000 and going on tour helped push up the sales of my album. That’s the reason I never turn down an offer if the sponsor is noteworthy and I get my price.”

She refuses to divulge her price but Anaida let the cat out of the bag when she revealed that most pop artistes are paid between a lakh and a half to Rs 3 lakh. Some do it for even Rs. 50,000. Alisha is the highest bidder, reportedly getting as much as Rs. 10 lakh. However, Alisha has been out of India for a long time, leaving the field open for Anaida and co. Anaida claims she’s the highest paid pop artist, but there are reports that it’s the Bolo ta ra ra man Daler Mehndi who’s commanding Rs. 10 lakh plus today. Anaida admits that Daler and Baba Sehgal are among the only pop artists to command an audience for their solo shows. “But I have my fan following too. I have a live band and generally don’t lip sync, which is perhaps why the audience go for me. Unfortunately the concert culture hasn’t come to India yet. Concerts are still part of some fashion show, awards nite, star event or product launch. And taxes are so high that the organisers are running at a loss which is why they’re not promoting the business,” she explains.

It’s time for the big brands to move in. Coca Cola has entered show business recently. Raageshwari was snapped up for a deal which included eight concerts featuring hits from her debut album. The concerts, in a change for the norm, were free for all, and Raag herself visited colleges and pubs in Bangalore where the first concert was held to distribute free passes. Raag, you’re told by her proud dad, was chosen after she ranked highest amongst the singers people wanted to see. Pre-judgemental groups in different states, starting from the North, were asked to give the choice and their reaction video-taped. Business certainly is becoming more systematised and with consumer giants like Coke promoting debutant artistes like Raageshwari with massive hype, concerts are suddenly acquiring new dimensions. Star nites may become passe in the next century, but we hope there’ll always be an audience and sponsors for young freshers like Raag for whom such concerts can be a real boom. “They give her album a real boost,” asserts Raag’s composer father.

In conclusion we can say that though 1998 may not have been a very happening year, so far the year’s not over yet. After a slow start, the golden jubilee celebrations have peaked, and around Diwali we’ve had some pretty unusual extravaganzas. Talat Aziz singing at the Nizam’s palace, Anuradha Paudwal at the Meera mandir in Rajasthan. There’s always an audience for your not-the-usual fare. After an unforeseen crash, the stock markets have steadied. And maybe despite the cash crunch the concert scene too will perk up. Shows may have been few, but the shows will go on... into the 21st century, no fear.