Prateek Kuhad feels Bollywood continues to dominate the music industry in India

After starting off his musical journey on an independent note, Prateek Kuhad’s songs have started to find their way into the Bollywood world. But the singer feels Bollywood has no role to play in his journey or the graph of his songs.

Kuhad has made a name for himself in independent music, going on to earn credit for introducing a new form of Indian music to the world with songs such as Tum Jab Paas and cold/mess. He made his debut with his EP Tokens and Charms in 2015, and followed it with songs such as Kasoor, Tune Kaha, and Tere Hi Hum. His songs have also made a way into Bollywood, such as Saansein, Kadam and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan.

However, he admits that he is not enamoured by the popularity of Bollywood, and likes to stay detached.

“I don’t think Bollywood has a role to play in the popularity that I have today. Kho Gaye Hum Kahan came out in 2016, and made no difference to my career. Nothing happened for two-three years straight. I never played it live all through 2016-17 and 18. I got the song back into the set in 2019, and it was a nice song, which is why it became popular that year,” says the singer, who recently had a gig at Vh1 Supersonic 2023 in Pune.

Kuhad adds, “My most popular song is cold/mess, which is fully independent, and Kasur. Both the songs had nothing to do with Bollywood. The success in the initial days came with songs which had nothing to do with Bollywood. My only major Bollywood song is Kho Gaye Hum Kahan. At the end of the day, it is a really good song. A good song will find its audience at some point, but one thing is for such, the relevance of Bollywood making a difference is reducing a lot these days.”

In fact, he feels Bollywood continues to dominate the music industry in India, which he is glad is changing slowly.

“It took me a while to realise that we don’t actually have a music industry. The music industry, so to say, in India, is basically like Bollywood music, which is great. There is some phenomenal music that’s come out of it. But it’s just very tied to films,” says Kuhad.

The 33-year-old adds, “The songs are really popular, but they are always tied to a certain narrative, which is based on the films. So, we are not actually hearing any authentic stories of people, which is happening with music all over the world. They tell personal stories, such as pop songs, rappers. They detail things about their real life. We are not hearing much of that”.

However, he is happy to see the trend starting off, as he mentions, “We have started to that now, with rappers such as Divine and artists such as Ritviz coming in, who have their own unique voice”.