23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Organising Diljit Dosanjh, Hanumankind, Travis Scott concerts: ‘Artiste fee between $1-8 million, demands for bright purple colour wafers,' BookMyShow CEO shares details
Concerts in India saw a huge boom last year, as more and more artistes around the world realised the potential of the Indian market. International acts like Guns N Roses, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, and Green Day have had more than successful outings in India, and BookMyShow is very much in the driving seat of this phenomenon. The ticket vendor website has become so much more than that, and its CEO Ashish Hemrajani told podcaster Raj Shamani recently about pulling off these huge shows and what all goes on behind the scenes.
He described how every artiste has a 'rider', which is a list of requirements, and how they can sometimes be the strangest little things. 'Every artiste has riders. We have had artistes in the past who have asked us to put Doritos chips on the right side of the bed, with a certain ketchup. Some of these are just tricks; they are demands which are not at all possible, like asking for bright purple colour wafers. They put these bizarre things in there to check whether you are focusing on the contract and the fine print of it,' he added.
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The CEO talked about the growing trends in music and how country and rap are genres that are the ones to watch for, with the former going through a huge resurgence. 'Country is coming back now, with artists like Teddy Swims and Post Malone; even Taylor Swift's music is seeping into country music. Hip-hop is also huge in the country; I mean, look at the way we sold tickets to Travis Scott – the tickets were gone in 20 minutes.' He also talked about how since Covid, independent music has rediscovered its space in India and named artistes like Anuv Jain, Jonita Gandhi, Kayan and Hanumankind.
He also explained how the financial side of this business works and admitted that paying artistes to come and perform is something that is not feasible for a business. 'We have a separate artiste budget based on the number of tickets sold and the brand that are coming in. The payment for the bigger bands can range from $1 million all that way to $8 million; it could be anywhere in that space.' Hemrajani talked about the business aspect further and explained how growing artistes like Hanumankind and Jonita Gandhi sometimes end up losing money after performing live, but he still appreciates them. 'I like both of them because they are investing in the live touring side. Both of them put a lot of money into Lollapalooza; they invested almost double the amount of money they got paid. You look at the stage design, the outfits, the props, and there is a lot of effort that goes into these things.'
Ashish is right to point out Jonita and Hanumankind, as it is very uncommon for artistes to pour in extra money for their performance at an event like Lollapalooza. Artistes generally invest in their stand-alone performances, when they are the only attraction on stage, because in those cases they have more control of what they can do, and they also have a better idea about the money that is coming in. That information helps them take that decision on how much they can afford to invest in things like stage design, outfits and props.
BookMyShow has announced the lineup for next year's Lollapalooza, and their next big event will be the Travis Scott concert in New Delhi, as part of his Circus Maximus tour.
