Despite fewer releases Hindi film music will never take a backseat, says Salim Merchant

Over the last 16 months of the pandemic, the Hindi film music industry has been hit hard due to the lack of theatrical releases. But the meteoric rise of independent music has kind of made up for that with many Bollywood singers and composers putting songs out regularly on their own channels and labels.
Composer Salim Merchant agrees, “There’s no doubt that the pandemic has given rise to music in a big way.A lot of musicians and artistes are experimenting with their ideas in creating music without any boundaries and ceiling of any script, character or any period or drama. They’re creating music for what their imagination, ideas and emotions are all about. And that empowers musicians and writers to think beyond a script or a film. A movie has limitations as you have to emote according to the brief of the film character. A non-film project gives you complete liberty and the world is your canvas.”
Browsing through the independent song lists of all the big music labels, we do notice that some of these music videos are almost like tiny film stories. “The Hindi film music will never take a backseat as it’s embedded in our system,” says Salim.
With films releasing on OTT platforms, the glory of an actual Hindi film music album is no longer what it was in the pre-pandemic days. “A lot of films that were to be released in the theatres finally released on OTT platforms which have a different audience. People who consume films on OTT don’t care too much for the songs. But right now we don’t have a choice and it’s all going to come back and rise and shine once the theatres open up,” signs off Salim.