In a conversation with Komal Nahta, Tips Industries’ Kumar Taurani revisited a deal that still stings: the music rights of Ek Rishtaa – The Bond Of Love. Tips paid a premium for the 2001 film’s soundtrack. Director Suneel Darshan, Kumar said, had committed to give the label 8 to 10 weeks to promote the songs before the theatrical release. That window never happened.
The 3-week crunch
Darshan suddenly preponed the release, bringing the film to cinemas in 3 weeks. “The music was just picking up,” Kumar recalled, and the early date cut its run short. Tips, he said, lost a substantial sum – hamara kaafi nuksaan hua.
Ramesh Taurani added that the film itself would have benefited from a longer run. The logic is familiar to marketers: a campaign shouldn’t be cut before awareness has turned into intent.
Why the runway matters
For film music, the stretch between a soundtrack’s launch and a film’s release is not filler. It is the period when a song moves from discovery to recall – radio spins, TV promos, word of mouth, and the audience pull that fuels an opening weekend. A track that is still picking up has not yet converted into that demand.
Here is what the case tells a release marketer:
- A rights deal needs a committed promotional runway in writing, not in conversation.
- A strong soundtrack does not sell itself; it needs weeks to build recall.
- The release date is a marketing decision, and moving it changes the whole campaign.
The proof came two years later
Kumar pointed to what happened next. In 2003, Darshan made Andaaz and launched his own music label. For that film, he promoted the songs for 8 to 10 weeks. The songs became widely popular, and the plan worked. According to Kumar, Darshan later admitted the Ek Rishtaa call had been a mistake.
Same producer, same ear for music – a different window, and a different outcome. That is about as clean an A/B test as a marketer can ask for, and it landed against the rushed release.
What to do with this
The lesson is not that Tips was right and a filmmaker was wrong. It is that a release calendar is a value driver. For labels, studios and streamers negotiating rights today, the promotional window should be specified as a minimum period, with the cost of an early release priced in. If a producer wants to prepone, the partner who paid for the rights should know what the shorter runway costs in reach and revenue – and what compensation covers it.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
