Saregama continues tuning into live events amid policy spotlight on concerts, Orange Economy

Saregama bets big on live events.

Saregama, the oldest music label and an entertainment Intellectual Property (IP) company, is sharpening its focus on live events at a time when there is increasing policy focus on concerts and the broader Orange Economy.

"A long-term belief in the potential of live events in India keeps getting reinforced quarter after quarter and we will continue to put our focus and investments in this area," said Vikram Mehra, Managing Director (MD), Saregama.

Long game in live events

The company's profit in Q3FY26 fell to Rs 51.24 crore from Rs 62.34 crore during the same period a year ago. Total income was also down to Rs 267.8 crore from Rs 499.14 crore.

"There are many more shows planned in Q4, including our first music festival in Bengaluru in March ... shows around Lord Krishna, with Manoj Muntashir in Mumbai. We have got into bhajan clubbing shows big time," Mehra said during the Q3 FY26 earnings call on February 3.

The company's events business scaled up with successful music tours by Diljit Dosanjh and Himesh Reshammiya, alongside growing traction in the comedy vertical, featuring Viraj Ghelani, Aanchal Agrawal and Manhar Seth.

"We are still at a very early stage of the event economy in the country. Around two years back, when we started the events business, we had said that we will take a call after one year whether we want to continue in this business or not. And then Diljit (Dosanjh) happened. And after that Himesh (Reshammiya) happened. We are realising that there's a large enough potential," he said.

Dosanjh effect

Two of Dosanjh's music tours have led to significant gains for the company's live events business. The Dil Luminati became the biggest live musical concert of 2024, and, last year, Dosanjh's Aura Tour also hit the right chords among audiences.

Saregama's live events revenues hit a peak of Rs 278.9 crore in Q3 FY25. It dropped to Rs 22.2 crore in the last quarter but Mehra noted that it was the Dosanjh effect in the same quarter last year.

"We are grateful that we get a chance to work with two of those artists. The numbers will grow in a steady fashion but this kind of a lumpy revenue that you saw in Q3 of last year, which was not seen before, is one-off. Please don't hold it against us. It may or may not happen but the events vertical will keep on growing," he said.

He also said there is minimum capital requirement for the events business. "The great part about the events vertical is there is very little capital which remains locked in it. At the end of this quarter, we have close to Rs 15 crore locked into the events vertical. The nature of the business is that you put the money in and the capital gets rotated within 30-40 days."

Mehra added that for their events vertical, the focus will be to be capital-light, and not get into infrastructure-related part of the events business and produce great shows with artists.

"Our attempt is going to be a high single- digit margin percentage. But it will take 2-3 years to  achieve these percentages on a steady basis. Today, it's a hit-and- miss. Some of the events end up delivering this. Some of the events which are at an early stage or wherever we are building a brand new IP ends up contributing negatively to the margin," Mehra said.

The events business revenue in FY25 touched Rs 285.2 crore, up from Rs 13.4 crore in FY24.

Currently, events business contributes 2 percent to Saregama's overall revenues.

Mehra also added that with the events business they are chasing profitability. "We are happy doing 200 smaller events but there we have a higher assurance of profitability than doing these large events where the risk factors are pretty high."

Policy push

Saregama's live events push comes at a time when there is an increased focus on concerts, gaming and more. Even the Economic Survey of 2026 mentioned the Orange Economy and how music concerts aid the economy.

The Survey cited examples of countries like the US where live music generated over $130 billion and supported more than 900,000 jobs in 2019 and the UK where music tourism alone contributed $8.1 billion in 2022 or about 0.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reflecting strong spillovers to hospitality, transport and retail.

It added that, in India, the concert economy is nascent but scaling, supported by a young population, rising incomes, digital ticketing platforms and improving urban infrastructure. "With appropriate facilitation and integration into tourism and city branding strategies, the concert economy can become a meaningful driver of growth for Media and Entertainment (M&E), tourism and allied services," the Survey added.