 are entering the next session very quickly because that's been on a wait-for-long decoding the phenomenal rise of Punjabi music. Let's get straight to the moderators and speakers. Please welcome here again, MD and President PDC Network, Mr. Rabindran Arayan along with Harimid Singh from Mead Bros, Music Director and Duo along with Karan Grover, Director of Music Partnership for Emerging Markets, Dolby Labs along with the singer and composer Shubhani Kashyap and mentoring the session is going to be the one and only Meheer Joshi, singer and a host and a of the MJ show. So all to you and I can't wait for this one to be started. Hi Meheer, over to you. Hi, good to be here. Happy World Music Day to everybody. Mr. Narayan, good to see you. Harimid, sit here. Where's Manmeet? Good to see you here, my friend. And we're waiting for Shibani to join us as well. I think once she joins in, we will get this. Is she here? Forgive me if I can't wait. Has Shibani joined us? Let's get her on and then let's begin it properly. Mithin, can you see if Shibani has reached? I can hear her but I can't see her. Shibani, thank you Mithin for bringing us here together and let's kick off this show. So before we begin, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Music Inc. 4.0. This is a session where we're going to find out about the incredible, incredible rise of Punjabi music. I can't even call it rise, right now. I think it's right at the top. So the rise would have been like if we had this conversation about 10 years ago but right now, Punjabi music is not just kicking ass in India but all across the world. And there's nobody better than Mr. Narayan to speak about that because he heads the biggest Punjabi music and entertainment network in the country. We've got my dear friend Harmeet, a part of the Meeth Bros making hit songs for Bollywood and beyond for so many years. And my very dear friend, Shibani Kashyap, we go way, way back all the way from Hogaayi Mohabbat to her latest song, Jogia. She's got it going on. And coincidentally, Jogia, her latest song, is a Punjabi song. Mr. Narayan and Harmeet, before we begin, I want to start off with Shibani because unfortunately, Shibani had a prior commitment. Hamara jo session hai, kaafi late shu hua hai. So let me start off with Shibani and then we will go deeper into Harmeet's music, into the business of Punjabi music as well. So Shibani, welcome. Firstly, congratulations on your new single. It is doing so well. Lots of love that you've got. I've been seeing the reels coming up on Instagram. I've been seeing so many people trying to cover your song. So how does it feel? I know you've been making music for a long time. And how does it feel to see the success of Jogia? Thank you, Meeth. And thank you for this question. And you know, I kind of was very nervous before I actually decided to take a plunge and do this song and this Jogia is quite because before this, whatever Punjabi songs that I've done are kind of modernized and poppy and you know, very sort of colloquial. But this one is really take Punjabi. And I really loved the whole process of making the song. It was wonderful, even shooting the video, etc. It was lovely. And you know, we had to release a song with a big bang in a huge press conference because we'd got a wonderful actor, Dheeraj Dupur, who's very well-television scenario. And lo and behold, there was the lockdown which happened suddenly yet. So we had to do everything virtually. So I was like, okay, now it's going to be the true test of the song, you know, up your head, people will be watching my song on their gadgets or whatever. So organically, we crossed 2 million views. That's amazing. And I'm very, very happy about that. That's phenomenal. And the main thing is that the reels. So every day there are people making reels on the song. So that is the biggest, huge compliment. The song really helped me to connect my roots, which is Punjab. I am a Punjabi myself. And I was wondering, I have been doing songs, why didn't I dabble with Punjabi before? So right after this song meet, I've just recorded a song called Luckshake, which features Govinda daughter, Tina Ahuja, which is on the verge of release. It's another Punjabi song. So here I'm really thrilled actually. So I see Mr. Narayan smiling very happily because I'm sure he's excited about the fact that there's more Punjabi music coming from you, which I'm sure he will help get across to the rest of the world through his amazing network. But Shivani, I know you're in a hurry, but I gotta, before you leave, I have to ask you to sing a little bit of your song. We can't let you go without performing a little bit, especially considering today's world music. Maybe they don't want to. Is somebody else talking around here? I can't make out. There was some sound somewhere. Sorry, Shivani. Go ahead, please. So Meera also, I'd like to reiterate that in 2003, when I started my career as a Bollywood singer composer, with the songs, it was a hint of Punjabi. I just had to do it because I don't know, was it because of that? Because you know, somewhere, I think the Punjabi language has a mass appeal. It has a patchiness and the beppiness. So anyway, I'll just sing a few lines of Jogia. And I'm really happy to part of this panel. Thank you so much. You played Jogia on your channel so heavily, so amazingly. Big, big, big thank you for that. Thank you so much. Okay, here we go. Yeah. Thank you so much, Shivani. I want to wish you. So tell you, I had a happy one. I had to play a song for Harmeet, which is yet to be released. It's a song called Ishqavala. That too is in Punjabi. It's beautiful. So once it comes out, I'm sure it's going to really rock it. It's a beautiful composition by the Meethroes. Lovely. So coincidentally, Shivani, when Jogia released, you came on the MJ show, you spoke about it. Harmeet is also here. So when you both release the song, please come back. We'll talk a little bit more about it. Shivani, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm glad you could wait around and perform a little bit. Mr. Narayan, you had something to say to Shivani. It's so glad to see Shivani making such great music. I remember late 90s and early 2000s, when she would just trooping to our Green Park office with a guitar. She anchored a show called Rhythmic Show, which aired on 80 and at that time, she's done an amazing one. And she continues to do it. The biggest thing in people come, people do good things and they disappear or they fade away. She's been, one artist who's been very consistent. 100% creating good music. I would like to add that if there was an award for the most persistent artist in the country, I think I would go to Shivani. You made my day and of course, I need you all to be a supporter and a friend. But thank you so much and Hari, I can't wait for our song to release because that is going to be a beautiful one. I'm very grateful. We're destined to give the industry something together because my first song was Jogi Singh Bannala Singh way back in 1999. So it was a Punjabi song and today you've come up with Jogi and your husband is my best friend. We have a way to go and we'll rock the Punjabi industry even more. Wow, that's fantastic. Lovely Shivani, take care of yourself. Happy World Music Day to you. We'll see you soon. Bye. So we, Shivani had to leave us for now but we now are with Harmeet and with Mr. Narayan. So Mr. Narayan, before, I know we've kept you waiting for a while. You had a chance to just speak a little bit with Shivani but I got to ask Harmeet. Harmeet, you've been making Punjabi music outside of Bollywood and within Bollywood for a very, very long time. So before we ask Mr. Narayan about the growth that he has seen in that industry, tell me how important has Punjabi music been for you? I mean, it goes back to your roots but how important has it been for you from a creative perspective? So I would like to say in one form that it's not just about how it's important to me, the way it's shaped up is it's become Punjabi music has become inevitably present everywhere. You cannot live, yeah, even if you don't like it, you'll have to hear it. It's become compulsory by the universe. Absolutely. Go dance, party, office, there will be somewhere in the background Punjabi music is in the air basically. I think we should put it like that. So when Punjabi music is in the air, plus I'm a Punjabi, plus I'm a musician, so it runs in my blood basically. And I think why it has become like this, why it's so important is because at the end of the day, the history plays the most important. You see everything, whether it's for example, a very basic understanding of the whole world is that Gujarat is known for diamonds and textile. Punjab was known for the agriculture and the Sikh community was born as a warrior. When born as warriors, there was so much of hard work in farming and wars. The Punjabi community turned out to be a very tough community and with that toughness and tough times came out beautiful, the pain turned out to be into a beautiful melodies and folk music because when there was wars and people were in pain, what comes out? You need to take out the stress through music and the folk was born. The Punjabi folk is so rich and that is running in our blood. So when the internet came in, in the last 10 years when YouTube and all this internet came in, that hidden gem came out in the open and the language itself, yeah and it's like a God give that language is also like Shivani said, very happy and bouncy. So that fanatics and that folk music combined together on internet became viral. See if a person, like my baby doll song and if someone said that that same thing, if I say in Hindi that baby doll, I am very beautiful, why do I sleep? Which is the baby doll, I sleep. There is a bounce in that. So it inevitably becomes important for us and you cannot live without Punjabi. You know, Mr. Narayan, I'm going to ask you about this. I've been speaking about this for many years from my radio days to now and I believe that Indian music is capable of reaching out to the rest of the world. Now we've seen from the last maybe two decades how Spanish music has taken over the world. We've seen in the last five to six years how Korean pop and Korean music is something that people are embracing or even Italian songs, some of them or whatever. My point is in India, there are kids who are having a great time dancing on Spanish songs and K-pop songs and whatnot. And I've always believed that we've got music which is capable of transcending the language barrier, the spatial barrier going to other countries. We should be able to have a Korean kid somewhere sitting and dancing on baby doll or you know, or on some other Punjabi songs. And I think what was important was to give it that vehicle where you realize that this is not local, it is global. I'm actually kind of quoting you because I was seeing your beautiful TEDx talk and I love what you said that there are Punjabis and potatoes everywhere and we need to get the Punjabis even more popular than potatoes. And I think you've successfully done that with PTC. So tell tell me a little bit about the journey of PTC about how you realized, you know, at the very start that this is not just a local phenomenon. It's not something you can take this music to the rest of the world. See, I would like to just correct you that Spanish music or Italian music has taken over the world. It's not so they come and burst. We'll have a Bella Chow once in a blue moon which will capture the world. Punjabi music has captivated and captured the world since the 80s. Absolutely. It was the Dhamis and Avaz and Hira groups who actually revolutionized Punjabi music when they went to UK and created a whole club circuit where there was Punjabi music being performed in clubs and parties and all over the world. So that for me was phase one where the Punjabi pop actually saskotani and pyar adi avaz and all those songs shakti all these groups became phenomena and they introduced the West to Punjabi music. But the latest recorded evidence of Punjabi music's greatness has been by the historians who came with Alexander and they have written that this is an amazing land. Wow. And quote them to say If they are sad, there's a song coming out of them. They're happy, there's a song coming out of them. They're festivals, they're occasions, birth, death. Everything is related to music. And that's true for the music per se. There is a song for everything you have. And Punjabi music basically why it conquered the world is because of the passion. Punjab has been the land of passion. Without passion, there is no creation. So that's why this is all also the seat of all wisdom. The ancient epics or the grunts, the most ancient piece of literature, which is composed in the rich and couplets, musically, is Rig Veda. The Gayatri Mantra written in Rig Veda, still being enchanted by us, generated by us every day. Written in Punjab, Rig Veda in Punjab, Ramayana, Mahabharat, all these verses, epics created in Punjab. It's been the seat of wisdom and there is music ingrained in it. The youngest religion in the world, Sikhism. The entire Guru Granth Sahib was composed by the great gurus with specific ragas, specific times and everything dotted and specified how to sing it, when to sing it, and everything is being sung. Gurbani, that's the basis of our music. The entire PTC network's basis is Gurbani. We started the telecast in 98. It has continued and interrupted through various channels when we started it and on PTC for the last 12 years, 13 years now. That's music and after that UK-based musicians era came the era of Gurdhaswan. Before them, there was Rindrakor, Asasingh Mastana and all those, but they were confined only to live shows or once in a blue moon record that would come on HMB Sunday on the radio. But even that was popular all across, even in Bollywood it was popular. Jagte Raho was the film of Raj Kapoor which had Punjabi Tappe Bolia in it. That's the earliest I recount of Punjabi music happening in Bollywood. And after that came the era of Gurdhaswan. Then the lights of the layer man, the justies, they really took it international. It went international in a big way. Then the artists who were based in Birmingham, who were in Toronto, who were in Vancouver, it became an industry. And it all started with the Big Bang when in 98 we started Punjabi World and then converted into ETC Punjabi. That's when the actual boom came. I mean, I still remember the artists. I would not like to name them now. They would come to us with money in bags. Make a music video for us. Make us record our boom. Because before that HMB recorded it, otherwise who would release an album? Who would record them? Who would show them on television? Durdhaswan would once in a blue moon will show something. Dilra Mamla will become a hit once it is performed in a New Year Eve concert. But after that, once the channel came into being, the ETC and then PTC, there was no stopping. Now we have three music calls. We have an audio label. We record a song. I think we have the only television network which records original music. We have more than 500 recordings we have done in the last two and a half years. That's amazing. Two Punjabi songs. And we continue to create music. This year we took a note. We made a policy that this year we will record at least 400 songs and we will not charge a penny to any singer. That's amazing. They can record. They can release a track. We will record them. We will make their music video. We'll put it on here. We'll put it on our label. We'll put it on our digital. We have 97 Facebook pages, six Twitter handles, seven that size, across the world. We're going to push it. See, this is the least we can do. For decades, channels like us have made money out of music. Out of these artists. Today we are in a situation due to pandemic. Every artist, many are proud they would not say so that they have suffered. Every artist is suffering. Every for every artist, this has been a question of survival because how does artists survive, singers survive, musicians survive? By live performances. Nobody makes money just by releasing a song on YouTube or putting it on a streaming platform or cutting an album. They don't make money by that. It's a myth that these PPL, IPRS, they will look after you. They will take care of you. I've seen Idu Sharif dying in Penury and NGOs and us contributing for his treatment. So nothing comes to them. All money is made by live performances. Companies who make money out of the artist. The artist has only one source, live shows. That's publicity. He gets shows and Punjabi artists have been very enterprising. They were always busy. Every weekend they would be performing somewhere or other on the globe. They would have club conferences, concerts, private concerts, marriage shows, birthdays, somewhere or the other. The pandemic meant one and a half years, no shows. No shows mean no money. No money means you can't survive. What do you do? That's true. That is true. No artist which comes to us to be charged any penny, we will record them. That's amazing. I mean the platform, the platform must become the medium for their survival. If they're good, whenever the pandemic goes away, whenever the shows open, they will get work, but it should not be that they can't record. They don't have that money. So they'll go out of sight out of mind and the industry should come to a standstill. It should not be. We've continued with e-concerts recording. We merged technology with television and we collaborated with artists where the tabla player was in Ludhiana. The vocalist was in Delhi. The guitar player and collaborated with them to online put them together in a concert. The technology is there to help you. Bluetooth mics, sync audios, a lot of things we applied so that concerts remain going on, audience gets new music, artists get to perform, get to remain in the group because honestly, I've seen a few artists selling vegetables today. That's true. I mean it has been a difficult time sir and I think it's an incredible thing that you are doing for the music community by giving them an opportunity and this is how it was back in the day before everything was so easily doable by yourself. Back in the day, a record label, which is what you also are now, would search for good talent, take that talent on and create that talent's music and it's great to see that there is at least one entity which is going the old school record label route and saying that hey, if you've got the talent, we will give you the platform, we will make your music and we will put it out there. So congratulations sir on such an amazing decision that you have taken and I think a lot of artists in our country will be extremely grateful to you for that. Harmeet, I got to ask you about something that Ms. Narayan just spoke right now which is this has been a difficult time. It's been a difficult time for everyone. I mean there's one year and whatever, three, four months that we've had to pretty much be locked down. Maybe there were a few months that things kind of opened up. How has it been for you from an artist's perspective? I know the Meet brothers were performing live all across the world. You have these incredible live concerts where people enjoy your music in the most real way possible where they're right in front of you, they're dancing and singing along because you've got all these hits that people love to sing along with you on. So right now it's been a year and a lot of people are working in the studio or maybe but you've not had a chance to go all out the way you could have done say before a year and a half ago. How has this time been for you and what have you been doing? What is the musical creativity that has been happening? I'm assuming that has not stopped. See before I get into that lane I would like to acknowledge and compliment Mr. Rabindra for taking such a good initiative on and it is so important as an artist and you know that we have a musical called The Music which started about two years ago. It's doing recently well and I've understood the last three years I've understood the business pretty much and it is really important that people like Rabindra who are sitting on top of Meet who achieved in so many years have achieved a great height of success. It's a payback time for short and we need to give credit and congratulate people like Rabindra who are actually you know thinking and working towards it and when they say the law of attraction and manifestation is that when you actually try it the only thing happens right. So it's not easy to recover the kind of money he's planning to invest in the artist but I truly believe as a spiritual being that the intention of a good person like Dushan genuinely wants to do you know his base was very clear that in the pandemic when artists have shows you know there's not a lot of difficulties. It could be money for food or money for living. So this emotion is what they have said that Punjabi music has been growing passionately. It's a community. Like I said history plays a very important role. You know we are all farmers. We are all passionate people. There is a there was so much of energy in Punjabis. If you see the actually the commercial like he told you the history of Punjabi how it grew in the industry but I remember the Lair Mendi was the Bolo Tarara was the commercial angle which which yeah it changed the dynamics of the country. So absolutely. So as Punjab as a market was growing very well inside within the Punjab. There were many legends in it. But when it came to Bollywood, Bolo Tarara and Na Na Na Na Na Na and Dardi Rabarab changed the game and then obviously many other Punjabi like now that the Honey Singh came and he brought in rapid Punjabi, Bacha Guru Dandawa, Neha Kakkar. So I think it's also destiny that all of a sudden you know God like Yash Raj and Dharma brought in Punjabi music. So when everybody all the Punjabis came up together with their passion people realized that Punjabi music is very rich and it actually gave industry a great amount of music to dance on in party because every wedding, every festival, every celebration in life pandemic that is the Punjabi music which gives you that bounce, beat, dance, bangla you know the language it's again another very big reason because today the topic is that how did Punjabi music make a difference. I want to focus on that part which might help a lot of musicians and you know the entrepreneurs to understand that as not only as a as an entrepreneur as a creative guy, what really helps the fact that Punjabi language is very similar to Hindi language. So there are some God gifts in Punjabi language which makes it very bouncy, peppy, simple to understand and I'm very glad that you know your the summit today the Anurag Bacha's team and everyone has picked up this topic because it's important for people to realize that if a Punjabi language and a Punjabi music industry is gifted to you, it's very important to realize that if Jata Ji or Kishore Ji, who didn't even learn it, they were gifted, there can't be a question mark if we forget that why is Punjabi music so big, I went into my meditation and I also started thinking where did Punjabi music come from, I realized it was the pain which was during the you know the sake regimen when we made Punjabi for warriors, so the pain and emotions we had, agriculture was the economy of our country for hundreds of years, so this thing took so much effort, they were singing along with them in the entertainment loo, they were playing the drums, they were playing the drums, you were also playing the drums, so those are all natural evolutions of humanity, the evolution of Punjabi music, so the conclusion I'm trying to, the point I'm trying to make is that we got a gift from our Indian music industry of Punjabi music, we have very good people like Rabindra Ji and you know there are so many singers, these days all the Punjabi singers are playing the whole life, it's become bigger than even some of Hollywood music, we all know that, it's given in so many articles in economic times and there and there, so we got to give that award, that credit to Punjabi music, that it's a God gift, it happened organically from the soil of Punjab and I think we should all actually, when I'm from here this World Music Day, we should actually make an organization or a committee to make sure that this becomes worldwide, like the song that came out was called Worldwide, I recorded 3-4 songs along with Laabh Jandwa, the last song by him was with me in Kashmir, I remember he should tell me that this is a global hit, when I told him that this is a global hit, when I went to America in 2003, the British people used to dance in all the clubs, I went for a world tour with Sampan Khan, Sanjay Dharth and Dikasha Vasudeva, and this song was going on in every club, so the fact that Punjabi music is so huge, it is like how hip-hop came from you know the Queens and America, we can make it worldwide if a community, if we talk to Anurag Bhattar Ji and Rabindra Ji, we can make a community and in every quarter, every year, we can meet him and ask him what can we do, how can we raise money, how can we bring good lyrics to the songs, there are so many different things, I know that YPU and EU are organizations because of which the economy is increasing, so when organizations come together, then Punjabi music industry can become bigger than any other industry ever because it has a God-gift of sound, phonetics, passion and craziness, No, Harmeet, I got to add on to something that you just said, which I have genuinely believed for the last one decade at least, as of today, if you talk to anybody in the international music scene, they say that hip-hop is the biggest thing in the world, I believe that if genre is capable of being the hip-hop of India, it's Punjabi music, I mean not just from a musical perspective but also now look at the kind of technology that is being brought into the music and what I mean by that is how good the songs are sounding, while they are rooted in folk and while they are still being sung in hardcore Punjabi, they are ready to take on hip-hop music as well, like one of the latest big hits was Brown Munde, Mr. Narayan, you know when that song came out, it was pretty much like a sensation, again like one of those global hit kind of a song which people were dancing on, making reels, making TikToks, all over the world. I want to ask you specifically, in the last say one or two years, maybe three years, how have you seen the evolution of modern Punjabi music? I'm not talking about just the folk-rooted Punjabi music but you know kids who are saying that, I am very proud of the fact that I'm Punjabi and I have my folk roots but I'm a modern kid, I love hip-hop and I want to bring my Punjabi-ness to modern music, so what do you feel about that? See you must understand, all Punjabis have one quality, they can adapt, they can go anywhere in the world and become one with that place. In Gayatri Mantra we say peace to this element, peace to that element, so that we are in harmony with the elements, the quality in Punjabis and the people who are from Punjabis, they can adjust, they can be in harmony with any elements around them, that makes them like a fish takes to water, when Gurwani says remember God like fish remembers water, so for Punjabis music is like such a thing, they have music in them, so wherever they are they will adapt, they will take those elements, put it into their own music and make it sound like that and make it unique, they've been doing it with great Ilan and now they've actually mastered it, and I've seen a packed house concert in Barcelona of Malkeet Singh, where the entire audience was almost all Spanish people, not many of this, a packed house, all dancing to this, this is the quality in Punjabis, the new wave that you're talking about, the Brown Mondays and all those things, the trends started by Honey, Rafthar and now mastered by these newcomers, it is precisely there, they've taken the beat from Italy, Spain, Vancouver from different different places, different genres and they were adapted to it. I believe we are kind of running out of time Mithin, thank you for coming and I have been seeing the messages, I'm on my phone but I've been seeing the messages Rohail, yes we will wrap up, but before we wrap up, hey World Music Day, you talked about something a lot more important and I'm glad you spoke about it, but what have you been working on? Unreleased songs, the next question is as an anchor, by the way I want to compliment you that you have great knowledge of non-mission, I've spoken about hip-hop being the biggest genre and how Punjabi can actually sing in my English band, okay I don't sing in Punjabi, but don't say that. How do you forget the songs in your studio? Your image anchor was so strong that it left my mind at the time of the audition. No problem, no problem. Then you'll have to sing too. Yes, I'll sing but first you sing. So my Punjabi song that you guys have watched, I've heard that it's a song that was a mix of Punjabi, Bollywood and pop. It's not very popular, but it's my personal favorite. I'll sing it. Love it. After that I'll get into the Chittiyagalai and rap. Go for it. I'm a fan. I'm a fan. You're my darling. In your baby, wipe the glass, drives me crazy. Shiny eyes, chit-chit-chit-chit-chit-chit-chit-chit. You're the light that makes you go ahead. Chittiyagalaiyabey, oh baby, your chittiyagalaiyabey. Chittiyagalaiyabey, oh baby, baby, wipe the glass, baby. Baby, don't mess with me. Oh baby, don't mess with me. Oh baby, don't mess with me. Oh baby, don't mess with me. Oh baby, don't mess with me. Oh baby, don't mess with me. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much, Harmeet. Thank you, Mr. Narayan. Thank you, exchange for media. Music Inc 4.0 has just begun. I said, what? Music Inc 4.0 has begun. There's going to be a lot more happening for the rest of the day. But this was a panel where we talked about the incredible rise of Punjabi music. There we have Mr. Narayan, my brother Harmeet Singh, Shibani Kashyap was just here with us. My name is Mihir Joshi and we'll see you soon. Thank you Mihir. Thank you Harmeet Baji. Thank you Ravindra Baji again. Thank you so much.