Bollywood offers a great platform for Folk Artistes to increase their reach and let the world know about their talents. Various reality & talent shows also play an important role as they act as an intermediary to get folk artistes closer to Bollywood.
In the past, several folk artistes and top classical musicians have stayed away from Bollywood as they felt that the commercialization of music (Bollywood is about money after all) was demeaning to the art form. Music greats like Ghulam Ali (Ghazal singer), Bhimsen Joshi (classical singer), Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan and many more were happy in their own world, away from Bollywood.
However, for the many more talented artists, who’re yet to taste success, Bollywood can be a great platform to help them get discovered. The hind film industry offers a “great platform” for folk artistes to display their creativity on a larger scale, and in the process, also gain popularity.
In recent times, several bands and traditional folk musicians, especially from the north-east, have been crediting Bollywood for bringing their music to a wider audience, and also making it financially viable.
Most of the musicians in such music ensembles are a younger lot, and perhaps that explains their readiness to embrace newer things. It means, these folk artistes are ready to imbibe other musical influences to make new and different kinds of music, as well as try out various medium to get their music heard, including reaching out to Bollywood.
These folk artistes & band members make it a point to perform, dressed up in their traditional costumes and play folk instruments, along with the more common rhythmic instruments.
“We love a lot of things about Bollywood, while certain things make us cringe too. Indie music and folk have more recently found a place in Bollywood and that is good news,” said a musicians in a Delhi-based band.
