Diljit Dosanjh
Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh had a film this year, ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’, which was based on the life of a folk singer of the same name from Punjab. This film tells the story of that time when singers did not have ‘concerts’ like today, but used to organise ‘Akhadas’ in every village. Both Akhara and concert have a tremendous connection with Diljit Dosanjh, because his film tells the story of a singer who was the most expensive ‘Akhada Singer’ of his time and Diljit Dosanjh has today become an Indian artist whose concerts are popular in foreign countries. They are. After all, what is the difference between these two methods related to the music industry at the business and income level?
Diljit Dosanjh recently conducted his concert ‘Dil-Luminati Tour’ in the North American continent. 54 lakh tickets were sold for this show in the US and revenue of approximately Rs 234 crore was generated. His concert held in Vancouver, Canada was the largest concert till date based on Punjabi music outside India. How different was the business model of ‘Akhara’ from the 80s?
How did the singers win with ‘Akhara’?
First of all, one must understand that at the time when ‘Akhada’ was prevalent, there was no ticket system. There were no tickets for the spectators in the arena, nor was there a fight for them as there is now at Diljit Dosanjh or Coldplay concerts. There was absolutely no meme going viral on social media about not being able to get tickets. Yes, one thing was common, like today, and that was the craze of people to listen to their favourite singers.
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So Akhara was a very local event, which was like a common gathering where a stage was set up at someone’s house or in the village fields. The whole village could come to listen to it, because there were no tickets. As soon as the creation of an Akhara was announced in any village, people came to listen to the singer. At that time, whatever Akhara organizers were there, they gave a fixed amount to the singer and they themselves earned money from the money received from people coming there, recordings, etc. The remuneration of a singer depends on his popularity.
Amar Singh Chamkila, on whose character Diljit Dosanjh made the film, was the highest paid singer in Punjab Akharas during his time. His popularity was so much that he had 366 Akhara shows in a year of 365 days. However, with time the business of the music industry changed and now singers earn a lot from concerts.
How do singers earn from ‘concerts’?
Today is the time for big concerts. So many tickets were sold for Diljit Dosanjh’s Delhi concert that he had to announce another extra show in Delhi for his fans. While extending his ‘Dil-Luminati India Tour’, he has also announced a show in Jaipur and Mumbai. After this, the ticket situation for Coldplay’s concerts is also the same.
The method of earning money at the ‘concert’ is completely different from that of ‘akhara’, because in this the audience enters the venue only by purchasing tickets. Apart from this, income is also generated at these events through many other side businesses. For example, money is generated from food stalls at the venue, sale of liquor (not available everywhere), sponsorship of programmes, TV and web broadcasting rights and advertisements about them, etc.
