Ajay Bijli Returns to Music With a 12-Songs-a-Year Dream
PVR INOX's Ajay Bijli is training at 5 am, recording with Amit Trivedi and planning 12 original songs a year after a COVID-era epiphany.
Ajay Bijli spent 36 years building PVR INOX into a cinema giant. Now the managing director is taking on a very different stage: the recording studio, the concert set and a plan to release music on his own terms.
From boardroom to riyaaz
Bijli says singing was his first love. In school he performed in inter-school competitions; at Hindu College he fronted a band, with long hair and campus gigs. Then he graduated and joined the family business, and music slipped to the background.
The pandemic brought it back. “During COVID, I really panicked. I had an epiphany. I said life is fickle, and you only live once… I must do something about my music now!” he told Hindustan Times.
So he did what a veteran operator knows best: he built a system. He began working with a teacher from Berklee College of Music and Hindi vocal coach Santa Singh, and now practises every day at five in the morning.
Prepared enough to impress Amit Trivedi
That discipline carried into the studio. Before recording with Amit Trivedi, Bijli practised until, in his words, “my face turned blue,” because he wanted to show up ready.
The session went well enough that Trivedi asked to include the song on his album Azad Collab, and later composed Bijli’s first EP, On Another Note. The three-song release included the wedding number Dil Kare Haaye Haaye, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.
Warner Music India offered to back him, and he has been performing at ticketed live events.
Why the second act matters
India’s music business now runs far beyond film playback. Independent releases, brand partnerships and live ticketed concerts have become serious revenue drivers, and Warner Music India’s interest shows how labels are drawn to artists who arrive with a built-in story and a business brain. For fans, it is another sign that the distance between the boardroom and the stage is shrinking.
The plan now
- 12 independent contemporary songs every year, plus a devotional album.
- P-Pop dance-floor tracks and evergreen English classics for live shows.
- New music with Rabbi Shergill and a Krishna devotional on the wishlist.
A warning from a vocal injury
The second act has not been painless. Bijli needed surgery in Boston after a vocal cord injury, which he blames on singing beyond his range and skipping rest. “The voice box is an instrument, and you have to take care of it,” he said.
His recent song Hey Maa has been playing at pandals this festive season. He has also joined Instagram and started a YouTube channel to showcase his music.
Asked where he wants this to go, Bijli points to live shows as the real revenue stream. He cites Bon Jovi as proof that artists can sustain themselves into later years. “Five years from now, I would like to be remembered as a singer who has a successful business,” he said.
The next big performance is personal: his daughter’s upcoming wedding. “There is no bigger endorsement than your kids wanting you to perform at their wedding,” he added.
Source: Hindustan Times
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