It is easier to get a break than to sustain your career in the Bollywood music industry: Priya Saraiya

The singer and lyricist believes that after one’s first few projects, it is the artiste’s responsibility to keep doing good work and survive in the industry.

As the entertainment world went through a very difficult time due to the pandemic last year, the music industry was the only place where work continued to happen despite the lockdown and everything else. So, while live musicians lost out on a lot of gigs etc., they also got a chance to get in touch with their inner creativity after a very long time, says singer Priya Saraiya.

Priya Saraiya’s new song Pritam Ni is a fun, wedding track.

But the pandemic also meant that Bollywood music was non-existent as only independent music was being made. While she does not want to compare the two genres, Saraiya, who has sung songs such as Jaise Mera Tu (Happy Ending; 2014) and Sun Saathiya (ABCD 2; 2015), says that Bollywood music is definitely more difficult as it has to be written according to a certain set up and hence, there are limitations.

Saraiya has also written the lyrics to popular Bollywood songs such as Mileya Mileya (Happy Ending), Judaai (Badlapur; 2015) and Pyaar Toh Tha (Bala; 2019), among others. And she says that Bollywood gives opportunities to everybody but it is what you make of those opportunities is what matters. “Everybody has their own struggles. Getting a break in Bollywood is easier than sustaining in Bollywood. It is easy to get your first song, second song or even third song but what after that? Then it becomes only about your talent and about how good you are with your craft,” says Saraiya. She adds, “Opportunities are there for everyone. I see all these reality show singers who are so talented and are all getting chances. Now, in fact, it has become much easier due to the digital platforms. So, things have definitely become easier than they were 10 years back.”

Saraiya, who recently released a new independent track titled Pritam Ni on her YouTube channel says that now, there is an audience for every genre. “There are some people who are dedicatedly only listening to hip-hop and trance music, and then there is another set which is only maybe listening to Bhojpuri songs so there is an audience for everything. So whichever genre has more listeners, the songs from those genres will obviously have more views. I feel bad when original content doesn’t get the kind of reach it should get. It pinches me but that’s where the music labels come into the picture as they take care of the promotion and distribution of the tracks so essentially I think every artiste needs to figure it out for themselves,” she concludes.