Arjun Kanungo: We are going to have a global star in the next five years

Despite several Indian musicians collaborating with international artistes in the recent times, singer Arjun Kanungo feels what is missing from the scene is a global star from the country.

“Non-film music is becoming the future and it has already started to happen. In fact, it’s the fastest growing sector in music, and there are actual numbers to prove it right. In terms of the growth, every year more people are listening to non film music today than they were listening to 10 years ago,” says Kanungo, hoping that India will soon get it global music star.

The 32-year-old, who himself paved his way in the world of music through independent tracks, asserts that the sector of the market is growing every day, and at present, it’s triple the musicians who are doing non-film music.

“Now, you will see a lot of stars coming out from the music scene, like King (of Maan Meri Jaan and Tu Aake Dekhle fame) recently went big with one big hit, and the world knows him now. There will be a lot of people like that in the future. It is bound to happen,” he says.

Looking back, Kanungo recalls when he started his career, there were only a handful of musicians doing pop. “Today, that genre has grown, especially because of the pandemic because there was no film music for two years. It has helped pop music really catch up. Now, labels are spending more on non film music in terms of acquisition,” he informs.

The singer, best known for songs Aaya Na Tu, Baaki Baatein Peene Baad and Waada Hai, reveals it’s when a music label decides to invest money into the market, things automatically change.

“It is not only about Bollywood anymore. For example, the Oscar went to a song from a film from the south film industry (Naatu Naatu from RRR won the Oscar). It is not a Bollywood song. Now, the international market is also opening up for us,” he says, adding, “Now, the big thing that is going to happen now is that in the next five to 10 years, we are going to have a global star from India. That has not happened yet, but soon it will. Because all the efforts are going towards that. Most of the big artists from India are working towards doing international projects”.

Elaborating on this, Kanungo shares while he’s doing projects in Japan, Badshah has work in the US and Armaan Malik has already been doing projects globally.

“So, international growth will happen now. When that happens, you are going to see a big change in the non-film music industry, because suddenly a lot of people from other countries are going to start listening to musicians from India,” he signs off.