Sound Of Music & Beyond

Joining the legendary firm T-Series started by his late father, teenager Bhushan Kumar has evolved into a hands-on leader.

What the next generation can do with its zeal has rightly been proven by the now 41-year-old Kumar. Proving its dominance over music and movies, T-Series has entered the Guinness Book of Records for being the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers. Kumar shares this technological change and being on the top of the game.

Your father started T-Series in 1983, and you had to lead the business at the age of 19. How have you evolved as a leader?

I had to take over the reins of the company at a time when I did not know a thing about the business. The producers who were committed to working with my father wanted to back out because they felt I would not be able to sell their film’s music the way my father did. I tried to convince them but in vain. I pleaded for one chance. I did the promotion of one film, the film worked and everybody loved it. That paved the way for the second and the third film. Then we did non-film music with Jagjit Singh, Lataji (Mangeshkar), Pankaj Udhas, among others, and luckily, they were successful.

Still, the top banners would not work with us. For instance, Rakesh Roshanji would never work with us because he had an existing relationship with HMV. Gradually, we were able to forge relationships with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Salman Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan. We even worked with Dharma Productions. Today we have music of all the top banners. It was extremely challenging to do all of this then. Thankfully, the team at T-Series which had been working with my father stood by my side and extended their co-operation and support to me.