T-TIME

From a music cassette company in the 1980s to an entertainment conglomerate, T-Series has come a long way under the guidance of its CMD, Bhushan Kumar.

- Vinita Bhatia

At a time when youngsters were planning where to relax with their pals, Bhushan Kumar was handed the reins of T-Series, a popular record label, which was founded in 1984, with a fledgling production house. The 19-year old had to take charge of the company in 1997, following the untimely death of his father, Gulshan. He barely knew the business, and producers who had committed to work with the company started backing out, worried that he would not be able to promote their film’s music the way his father did.

“I tried convincing them, but they were unmoved. I requested for one chance and did the promotion of one film, which worked. That paved the way for the second and third film. Then we did non-film music with Jagjit Singh, Lata Mangeshkar, Pankaj Udhas, amongst others, and luckily they were all successful,” Kumar reminisced.

Still, some leading movie banners were reluctant to work with T-Series. For instance, Rakesh Roshan’s Filmkraft Productions had an existing relationship with HMV Records and hence could not work with T-Series. Gradually, Kumar was able to forge relationships with big names, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Dharma Productions. “Today, we have music from most top banners, but it was extremely challenging to do all this after my father’s demise. My mother, my sisters – Khushali and Tulsi –, Ved Chanana and my uncle, Krishan, stood rock solid with me during that vulnerable phase,” Kumar said.

SMART SEGMENTATION