There’s quite a long journey for a musician, before one gains the tag of a ‘best-selling’ artiste. Popular musicians share how they struck the right notes in their careers

From humble beginnings to musical icons

ARJUN KANUNGO

The 29-year-old singer-songwriter, made his first foray into music about a decade ago, when he bagged his first music project which was “making hip-hop backing tracks” for a channel. “This was when I was around 18-19. I was getting paid ₹500 per track. In one year I made 300 tracks. [After that] I knew had to do music then!” he says.

RAJA KUMARI

Indian-American rapper musician Raja Kumari, has her first ever pay cheque fixed right on her “vision board”. However, she did not encash the cheque! “It was for $343 for a song that was meant to be featured on a video game, NBA2k13 but the song was later not used!” she says.

AMIT TRIVEDI

It started “some 20 years ago”, when he was picked to play the keyboard, at a 10-day long navratri festival in Mumbai, paid “₹1,500 daily”. By the seventh day, Chandresh Shah, a theatre producer, approached the then 20-yearold to compose for a Gujarati play, Ek Phool Khilyani Vaat.

GURU RANDHAWA

The popular singer who has given hits such as Lahore, Ban Meri Rani and many more, reveals he was paid ₹500 for his first professional performance as singer, at a “Bengali festival”, in Delhi in 2011. “I recall it was during my college days, around 2011. Before that, I used to perform in my village, as a kid, at weddings and small gatherings for fun,” he shares.

ARMAAN MALIK

He started singing since he was four and decided by the time he was seven that music was “going to be my career.” And next year, the then eight-year-old got a chance to sing a TV jingle, paid ₹25,000 for it. “I never got a hold of that money as my mom saved it all up,” he laughs.

PARIKRAMA

It’s been 29 years since the Delhi-based rock band has been enthralling everyone with their music. But their first performance as a band, recalls its keyboard plater Subir Malik, was in a school. “The first show we did was called Bandstand 91, at Father Agnel School, Delhi. We were contracted for ₹500. But at the end guess the organisers liked the band so they gave us ₹500 each!” says Malik.

NEHA KAKKAR

She started by singing bhajans in Delhi, as a fouryear-old, going on later to participate in a singing reality TV show and, from there, to a playback career. “It was a Mata ka jagran in Delhi when I was four and I got ₹100 for it. It was a neighbourhood/ community function,” she says, adding her first professional gig was recording the title song of a TV show. “I didn’t get paid for it,” she recalls.