Bieber Done, Sheeran Next. But Why Should Mumbai Have All the Fun?

Are administrative and licensing roadblocks undermining Delhi as a global music hub? We ask the experts.

India’s tryst with large-scale music concerts has invariably been a mixed bag. While, the infamous cancellations of the much-awaited Metallica (Delhi/NCR, October 2011) and David Guetta (Bengaluru, January 2017) have been the dark spots, the successes of the multi-city NH7 Weekender festival as well as the innumerable EDM acts (Sunburn at the pinnacle!) over the years have underscored India’s position as a fast-growing global music destination.

Mumbai especially has hogged the limelight in recent times by hosting two big-ticket and immensely successful performances of two internationally acclaimed artists– Coldplay in November last year and Justin Bieber earlier in May.

And just when we thought that the high-pitched enthusiasm would now be dying down, at least for some time, after Bieber’s performance, we now got to hear that Ed Sheeran would be coming to the Bollywood town as part of his Asia Tour on 19 November.

The capital city Delhi, on the other hand, has found itself in a damp squib situation of late, despite boasting of a veritable profusion of die-hard fans cutting across genres.

So what explains Mumbai’s current streak of successful performances and Delhi’s lack of them? Are the administrative and licensing roadblocks that crop up when organising a music concert on a colossal scale more tedious in the latter city compared to the former?

To get an answer to these questions, The Quint reached out to a few authoritative voices in India’s music industry

Let’s find out what they had to say!

Also Read: Justin Bieber Concert Review: How I Became a “Mini Belieber”

‘Not Just Delhi, Challenges Exist Everywhere’

Vijay Nair, CEO of Only Much Louder (OML), the company behind NH7 Weekender and Nikhil Udupa, co-founder, 4/4 Entertainment , stressed on the fact that one cannot simply attribute the absence of big acts like Coldplay and Justin Bieber in Delhi to its administrative and licensing incompetence, saying that “challenges in organising concerts exist in every city” and everywhere, some authority or the other has to be appeased.

Explaining why it was Mumbai that played host to the likes of Bieber and Coldplay, Nair said:

Most international acts which come to India can do only one or at the most two dates. And simply put, Mumbai is the biggest ticket-seller. Not Delhi and not Bangalore anymore. 

Vijay Nair, CEO, OML

Adding to this, Udupa said that being the entertainment capital of the country, Mumbai is bound to be the preferred destination for large music performances.

“All the logistics in terms of the sound and technical people as well as the equipment are easily available here (in Mumbai),” he told The Quint.

Regarding the infamous Metallica fiasco – where the famous American metal band’s Gurgaon concert was canned owing to mismanagement by the organisers and the subsequent ruckus at the venue – Nair said that the incident has just become a “bad stereotype” that has unfortunately stuck to Delhi/NCR.

The Metallica case was just one case which was badly managed. We should remember that some great concerts have been organised in Delhi.

Vijay Nair

But Mumbai Does Score a Few Brownie Points Over Delhi

Srijan Mahajan – the drummer for one of India’s most popular bands, Parikrama, and one who has been active in the Indian music circuit for the last 12 years – calls Mumbai “a way more professional city” when it comes to music shows.

He laments the fact that Delhi is not able to catch up despite having potential.

We have such good infrastructure in Delhi. The Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) stadium, for instance, is a great place to have concerts. There’s so much that can be done with it, but it’s just lying shut. The thing is, in Delhi, there’s too much of red-tapism and bureaucracy to be dealt with. Despite having the facilities, we are not doing anything with it.

Srijan Mahajan, Parikrama’s Drummer

Nair echoes this sentiment, as he underlines the need for the big stadiums in Delhi to be given out to private players – just like they do in countries such as UK and US where “a rock concert on one day can be easily followed up by a baseball game on the next”.

He goes on to say that working with the authorities in Mumbai is easier, while in Delhi they tend to be more “confrontational”.

And then there’s the VIP culture which acts as a major deterrent in the capital.

If in Mumbai, they (the authorities) ask for 50 VIP passes, in Delhi the number will be 500, Nair remarks. 

Also Read: In Pictures: How Justin Bieber’s India Concert Went Down

So What Can Delhi Capitalise On?

Despite the limitations, Delhi does enjoy a few privileges when it comes to organising concerts – a lower entertainment tax and a more streamlined licensing process, which is available online, as pointed out by Nair and Udupa.

While Delhi levies an entertainment tax of “15 percent on the admission price of each ticket” for tax paid programmes, the Mumbai suburban district has a tax provision of “25 percent of the gross ticket rate” on “events, exhibitions, including sponsor shows”.

Now, the way forward for Delhi clearly lies in finding ways to dispense with bureaucratic obstacles. Only then can the Delhi-ites confidently ask when a Beyonce or Rihanna is coming to their city, and not be left disappointed in the end.

(Please note that the term ‘Delhi’ in this article refers to the NCR region as a whole)