Fusion of creativity, entrepreneurship can always stir up a recipe for success

She feels that the fusion of creativity and entrepreneurship actually provides a great deal of opportunity, and could prove invaluable to the careers of many. For her, music is a universal language of mankind. The sound of birds chirping, the murmur of the river and holy chant at the temple- music is all around, early morning devotional songs by village singers, songs to tell stories of bygone eras, music to celebrate marriage ceremonies or religious festivals, musicians of band party- all form key elements to celebrate life with music.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Riddhi Bandyopadhyay, a nationally and internationally acclaimed musician, popularly known as "Pancho Kobir Kanya" says that if the creativity of music can be clubbed with entrepreneurial skills, the entire exercise will be sustainable and the reach would be much wider.

Music entrepreneur or music entrepreneurship seems to be fast coming up as the new buzzword in the music industry. What is your take on this?

The music industry already has a sizeable component of business attached to it, whether musicians are aware of it or not. To many musicians, creativity and business appear to be two completely different worlds, and they either don't want to acknowledge the business side of music, or simply don't want to deal with it. Now everyone is increasingly talking about the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in addition to strong musicianship skills so that one can be a well-rounded NewGen musician. Music entrepreneurship harnesses the skills and mindset of the entrepreneur to empower musicians to create work that is meaningful, sustainable and oriented to community and market need. To me, a musician entrepreneur is a unique combination of a musician and an entrepreneur. And music entrepreneurship is the synthesis of creativity, artistic vision, people skills, leadership, value-based marketing, and business sense. It's the process of turning passion into profession. A true music entrepreneur is one, who can identify the demand-supply gap, pin point the target group, do or bring in some innovations or innovative ideas.

So how have you followed this in your own case?

See, nearly 279.5 million (almost 28 crore) people worldwide speak Bengali as their mother tongue. with some 100 million Bengali speakers in Bangladesh, about 85 million in India, primarily in the States of West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura; and sizable immigrant communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Middle East. This can be seen as the overall market size.

Now the Bengal music industry is divided into the film, non-film, and classical, with a lot of non-film music now being released independently. Within non-film music, there are poetry-based forms like Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrulgeeti and Dwijendrageeti, modern or "adhunik" songs, devotional songs specially released around New Year's in April or Puja time in October, Bangla rock bands and folk music, which comprises Baul, Bhatiyali, Jhumur, and related forms. Though Bengali music has a sizeable audience, even among the diaspora abroad, it is yet to create the kind of impact that Hindi or Punjabi music does. So I realised that there is a gap and the scope is enormous.

So I thought let me try and experiment with something novel and I pioneered the concept of "Pancho Kabir Gaan'' encompassing the compositions and songs of Rabindra Nath, Dwijendra Lal, Rajani Kanto, Atul Prasad and Kazi Nazrul. I felt there was a huge demand-supply gap in this area. The Bengali diaspora living abroad or in the states outside Bengal do not have the resources to get familiarised or get their next generation trained in this type of music properly.

Has it paid off?

If you look at it from the recognition point of view, I have been awarded "Tumi Annanya 2019" a national level award and I was invited to perform as the anchor solo vocalist at the prestigious Ananda Puroshkar in 2019. I got opportunities to perform as playback singer in numerous Bengali films and Bengali serials. I also get invites from different parts of the world to perform on stages. I am also known as "Pancha Kabir Kannya" among the Bengali music lover's community in India, Bangladesh and abroad. And if you look at it otherwise, hundreds of my students from different parts of the world who took up this, now stand out as musicians as there would not be too many who can sing these songs properly.

Besides, Pancha Kabir Kannya was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including Junior Fellowship Award on Pancho Kabir Gaan by Ministry of Culture, Government of lndia and Scholarship Award of Rajya Sangeet Academy, Government of West Bengal. I have performed at numerous national and international level forums which include Rango Mahotsav at National School of Drama (2013 and 2015) presenting Songstress and Songs of Swami Vivekananda, NABC2013 (Toronto), NABC2015 (Houston), NABC2017 (Silicon Valley), NABC2019 (Baltimore), NABC2021 (Global) and the Nazrul Convention at Annandale, VA(NANCY 2018), Sangeet Natak Academy in Kerala performing the Shakespeare festival in 2010, 'Riddhi's Solo' in 2018 celebrating 20 years of music career, London Sharad Utsav (ABP Ananda), Pancho Kabir Gaan organized by Bangladesh National Museum, to mention a few.

People say of the 'Pancha Kobir Gaan' (songs of five poets), Tagore numbers and Nazrul Geeti overshadow others. Although it is called 'Pancho Kobir Gaan', it is actually Tagore numbers and Nazrul Geeti. What do you have to say about this?

This is not the case entirely. Even if it is true, to some extent, it is because some artists could not live up to expectations and standards. Organisers and patrons could not do the right kind of campaigning. If sung or performed properly, there is no reasons why audience would not accept them. Each song (lyrics, tunes and so on) are beautiful in their own ways.

Who did you get your trainings from?

Not one but many. I was trained under the tutelage of Maya Sen, Dr Sailen Das, Bani Thakur, Manju Gupta, Krishna Chattopadhyay, Sushil Chattopadhyay, Chandi Das Maal, Debi Ranjan Bandyopadhyay (Bishnupur Gharana), Dr Devajit Bandyopadhyay, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and Naren Mukhopadhyay.

So you only perform 'Pancho Kobir Gaan'?

No. Besides songs of these five famed poets of Bengal, I also perform Puratani Bangla Gaan like Nidhu Babur Tappa, Kirtan, Bengali Theatre Songs (West Bengal and East Bengal), Chhorar Gaan (Rhymes) for kids and teenagers. At my academy, where there are online and offline students from almost all over the world, I also offer voice training for beginners, other than these types of songs.