Anshul Garg set up his music label – Desi Music Factory (DMF) and Play Desi Music Factory (PlayDMF) and has become a strong force to reckon with in no time. The majority of the songs that DMF & PlayDMF is a part of, exceed 100 million views including some chartbusters like ‘Coca Cola Tu’, ‘Dheeme Dheeme’, ‘Dil Ko Karaar Aaya’ and the latest songs from ‘Selfiee’.
With PlayDMF, Anshul Garg has ventured into Bollywood film music, a feat which none of the independent music labels has been able to execute so far. The first film that PlayDMF has been associated with – ‘Selfiee’ was in association with one of the biggest production houses in the industry, Dharma Productions.
Talking to Prateek Sur, Anshul Garg opens up about the intricacies of the indie music industry, the difference they face when they enter film music, the trend of remakes and remixes and lots more. Excerpts from the candid chat:
You’re one of the biggest independent music producers in the country. How different is indie music from the usual film music that we get to hear?
Ten years ago, indie music was very underground but now if you see indie music like Spotify charts in the top 50, we see around 25-30 songs which are not film songs. Before indie music came, the songs were referred to as underground and non-commercial songs. So now indie music has become commercial in terms of business and before people made independent songs they used to think one day their song will be a part of a film and it will become a big hit. We, as a label also used to work like that and think like that. But now film producers think that they should capitalise and capture one of the indie songs and make their film bigger. So this is how the industry and scenario have changed. Indie music has a huge impact in Bollywood now.
Desi Music Factory has given opportunities to a lot of local and small-town music composers and singers. What are those check boxes that you tick off when you say yes to producing an indie music composer’s album or an indie singer’s album?
DMF has done a lot of songs with different singers, from different parts of India. My only way of looking into a song or getting involved in a song is by playing it three-four times and if it clicks to me, I move forward immediately. When we started to do a lot of music back in 2017 or 2018 when our songs ‘La La La’ or ‘Coca Cola’ became too big, a lot of people started approaching me and I used to play their music and that’s how we were able to capitalise or like bring people from different parts of the country and make them sing and make their songs a big hit.
Now you’ve come to Bollywood. How different is producing an indie album from producing a film album?
There is a huge difference I feel. The moment we announced this film (‘Selfiee’) and the first song we got to know… if I give you an example, like there are 20 aspects that we have to look into when we release an indie song, but there are two hundred aspects when we release a film song. So, this is the difference between releasing an independent and a film song. Our first film was also with big stars like Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi and with Dharma Productions. So, we had to make sure that the song promotion is good and that it reaches everywhere and that the album reaches the charts and does well. And it did well.
Bollywood films are relying heavily on remakes and remixes in today’s time. What’s your take on the remake culture? Is it a good trend or a bad trend?
If two remakes and two remix songs are hit then everybody would want to get into it and tap into that field and that genre and make a hit song or a hit film. But I feel when everybody enters the market – if I talk about the share market or any market, the market crashes… that’s why remixes and remake films are not doing great right now. In terms of trends in the film business, it’s about sequels of superhit films. The trend keeps changing and people keep getting bored of certain things and then you have to move forward and forget what you were doing before. In terms of music also I feel, it’s the same. Now, it’s time for independent music or at least in the next five to six years, it will become very big.
Also, there are very few female music composers in film music. Why do we have a dearth of female music composers?
If there are 10 composers then we will be able to find a maximum of one or two female composers. If you see the ratio even in terms of singers, to find a female singer it’s quite difficult for us because the options are very less. But now when independent music is growing and becoming big, a person or a girl who is sitting at home is composing music and he or she can put out the same on social media and different platforms by just ingesting the song. I feel in the next few years, a lot of new female composers and singers will come in and this market will see a lot of female talent coming in.
OTT is also becoming a new platform for music. Are you getting projects for films or shows which will be released on OTT?
Post 'Selfiee', we are getting a lot of offers for OTT and also for films, because the way we promoted Selfiee has made a mark and we have been approached by the biggest producers, but we just don’t want to tap into everything. We are going to do limited films. I just want to do a maximum of two to three films in a year and that is my plan. And this is how we are going about it because we don’t buy music, we make music. If I am getting into a film, I will make music with the director and producer, sitting with them and I would want music to be a very important part of that film. So that’s why we are not doing a lot of films but limited musical films.
What next can we get to hear from you in the coming days?
The trend keeps changing in the music and entertainment space and especially after the lockdown, we have observed that it has changed quite quickly. So, we have been doing a lot of exciting stuff, like we are doing a few international collaborations. I am producing a film this year and we are going to announce it very soon. In that also, we will be having three to four songs. We have been working on that. We will also announce one more big film this year which will be one of the biggest projects that I have done. So a lot of interesting projects are going to come.
