Earlier this week, BookMyShow surprised hip-hop fans in India by announcing a third show by Travis Scott, who will play a date in Mumbai in November after his two scheduled performances in Delhi this October. What wasn’t as surprising was the venue. The rapper will take the stage at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, which is where the Lollapalooza festival is held, and where the promoter has hosted concerts by Ed Sheeran and Maroon 5 in 2024 and Guns N’ Roses in May.
The incredible run of gigs by international artists in India over the last couple of years has shown more than any time before in history that there’s a massive appetite for tours by the world’s biggest acts here. This was made clear when 13 million fans logged on to try and buy tickets for Coldplay in Mumbai. And it’s evident in the news that Scott will actually return to Mumbai, after stops in South Korea, China, Japan and the UAE, instead of flying there right after his Delhi leg, as would typically be the case.
Everybody wants to come to India, but there simply aren’t enough places where they can perform. As per a white paper entitled ‘India’s Live Events Economy – A Strategic Growth Imperative’ published by Event FAQs Media, the world’s most populous nation currently has less than ten purpose-built venues with a capacity of over 10,000 people, and they’re all in large cities. That’s a problem that promoters say, they all want to solve right now.
According to Deepak Choudhary, the founder and MD of Event FAQs and the live experiences company EVA Live, “around 20 great venues” with a capacity of “5,000 to 15,000 people” will be launched across Tier-I and Tier-II cities over the next year, and will be operational by 2026. Choudhary didn’t share specifics, but added that Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are among the places that will house these new spots.
Though it’s unlikely to be ready next year, in January, the Government of Maharashtra’s City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BookMyShow to build an outdoor entertainment arena. Though no further details have been officially announced, “it will host 18,000 to 21,000 people”, according to Bloomberg, which also said that BookMyShow is aiming to raise $100 million to construct new venues.
Naman Pugalia, chief business officer at BookMyShow, told Music Ally that the CIDCO project will be situated “in [or] around Mumbai” and that the company is “interested” in establishing venues “in at least half-a-dozen cities” around India “that we believe have what it takes to be on a touring circuit.”
Pugalia says that it’s also working with sports stadiums to across the country “to figure out what kind of infrastructure they have available that lends itself easily to a multi-purpose facility” and is looking to upgrade existing venues such as the Nice Grounds in Bengaluru—where its hosts the Bandland rock and metal festival and staged two concerts by Ed Sheeran in February—“to make it a more plug and play facility as opposed to trying to erect one only to dismantle it every single time you want to do a show”. He sees India closing its infrastructure gap “between the next half-a-decade and decade”.
Among the states that will witness the opening of new facilities is Assam, the government of which is building a multipurpose stadium and rebuilding existing ones in Guwahati and Dibrugarh. Its tourism department has signed an agreement with BookMyShow for the organisation of international concerts, including a show by Post Malone in Guwahati this December.
Similarly, the government of Meghalaya has declared that it has plans in place to develop its “concert economy”, a term that has come into prominence after BookMyShow and EY published a report on how Coldplay’s gigs in Ahmedabad in January, which drew the highest attendance in a stadium this century, yielded an economic impact of Rs641 core ($75 million), with “significant spending on accommodation, transport, dining and retail”.
But another big bear for promoters is the red tape involved in staging a live event, a complex process involving obtaining approvals from multiple authorities. “Permissions require navigating ten to 15 departments, with timelines ranging from seven to 30-plus days,” states Event FAQs Media’s white paper. Organisers are asking for the introduction of single-window clearances.
“I’m very hopeful that because there is now this competitiveness, it will catalyse the move towards single-window clearances across cities and states,” said Pugalia. “Because there are now viable options, if a particular place ends up being too painful for promoters, they actually have a real choice of walking away and doing it somewhere else, which was never the case. And I think governments recognise that.”
Also on organisers’ wish list is a reduction in the tax levied on music and entertainment events. “As a company, we work very closely with a number of other players in this industry, with various industry representatives and trade bodies, to make a case to the government that we certainly shouldn’t be in the sin tax category,” Pugalia said. “They brought it down from the highest slab of 28% to the second highest of 18%, which we believe is still high.”
That might lead to a reduction in ticket prices, which while lower than the average rates in the west, have increased exponentially. There’s also the problem of scalpers snapping up tickets to peddle them on third-party websites even before they’re sold out. Pugalia says that’s “not something any of us can control”. As in the case with Scott, BookMyShow, and other promoters, have been dealing with unprecedented demand by adding shows whenever possible. Hopefully, by this time next year, audiences will have more options in terms of venues too.
This is the second of our India Insight look at the evolution of the country’s live music landscape. Read the first part here.
