"We expect 4000 people to attend the concert in each city": Siddhartha Roy, Hungama

Hungama Digital Media, which runs platforms like Hungama Play (video on demand), Hungama Music (music streaming) and Hungama Kids (VOD for kids' content) is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The venture was initially launched as a digital marketing agency in 1999. To celebrate the occasion, Hungama Music has launched a new intellectual property - Hungama Music Bus in association with liquor brand Royal Stag.

The bus that was flagged off from Mumbai, will have halts in Hyderabad, Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Karnal, Ambala, Alwar, Siliguri, Warangal, Karimnagar and Nizamabad. At each stop, there will be a live music concert featuring local and renowned performers. Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media says, "We expect a crowd of 4000, attending concerts in each city." He adds, "We will paint those localities with hoardings in association with our presenting sponsor, we will promote the concerts aggressively to ensure we get a high footfall."

The Intellectual Property Rights of the Music Bus belong to Hungama Digital and Roy says they are open to more brands associating with the property while Royal Stag remains the presenting sponsor. "We are doing this to celebrate regional music and we wanted to do it in tier II cities and smaller markets, and that's how we have selected the cities. The consumption pattern of music in India also played in role in finalising the cities. For example, the Punjabi music consumption is high and so there are three cities from Punjab," adds Roy. The bus will be on the road for 50 days.

Each concert will be opened by local bands and performers followed by headliners like Harrdy Sandhu, Jassie Gill, Indian Ocean, Javed Ali, Jeet Gannguli, Siddharth Mahadevan and Revanth. It will start from Siliguri with a Jeet Gannguli concert on December 8, 2019, followed by a concert headlined by Siddharth Mahadevan in Guwahati on December 13, 2019, and so on. "All the concerts will be in the open and there won't be any ticketing. Entry will be on a 'first come, first served' basis and we will lock the door the moment we reach the 4000 mark," informs Roy.

There is a production team travelling with the bus and each concert will be filmed to be later made available as episodes. "The concert and the local music story will be available in the form of episodes on Hungama Play, MX Player, MITV, Airtel Xstream, Vodafone Play, Jio TV and Amazon Fire Stick," he says