TV Music Show Producer

“Pop music was a rage in the 90s but eventually became monotonous and died out. Indie music is doing the rounds now”

I am part of a music programming team of three. We are responsible for a show right from its inception to making presentations for sponsorship, to keeping the artistes and companies happy, and ending with the entire execution of the show.

Sounds tough, doesn’t it? Actually it’s lots of fun but there are a few hiccups here and there, budgets being one of our major constraints. Our most successful project had a real crisis during its making. The sponsor of the show backed out after the fourth episode, and for more than a month we made no progress on the show. Not a very good thing when you have so much at stake. More often than not, shows get scrapped and ideas get dumped due to lack of funds.

Artiste management is a vital part of my job profile. They are required to sign contracts with the channel, where one of the clauses states that all compositions of the band on the show belong to the channel and can be used by it in whatever way necessary. Many artistes refuse to perform due to this clause.

My inbox is clogged by mails from aspiring musicians and artistes. Fortunately, they are not part of the clan that would do anything to be on reality TV. And yet many are unaware of certain facts about the television industry. I might enjoy the amazing places that I get to visit, but the working hours are exhausting. A hectic day for me can be up to 18 hours at a stretch. During one of our shoots, we started at 4 pm on a Thursday and got done at 10 am on Friday.

Our team has varied taste in music and reaching a consensus easily gives rise to friction. Pop music was a rage in the 90s but eventually became monotonous and died out. Indie music is doing the rounds right now. And at the end of the day, you play whatever is popular.

(He has been a producer for a year-and-a-half)

As told to Sharmeen Hakim

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