Apart from just one case, she has never endorsed any brand in her life. But her death united all brand leaders in grief. Their abundance of work not only provided them with a temporary escape from everyday stress, but also offered lessons in creation and brand building.
Leading industrialist Anand Mahindra tweeted: “What can you say when you have no voice…? Om Shanti.” Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said: “The voice, the charm, the melodies will live on for generations to come.”
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CEO of biotechnology major Biocon, said: “Lata Mangeshkar will forever cast her great shadow over us and remind us of her everlasting legend.”
Indeed, her voice will cast a great shadow over the music of this subcontinent.
Despite her massive celebrity status that spanned decades and beyond the borders of India, unlike most other celebrities, Lata Mangeshkar has shied away from endorsing everyday brands.
There is no consolidated number of what their songs have earned. However, there is a mountain of evidence on how much her voice propelled India’s Rs 1,800 crore music business, which is now dominated by streaming. More than 192 million Indians turn on some streaming app every month.
Saregama, India’s oldest music label, houses over 130,000 songs. Every time one of these is played on streaming apps – YouTube, Spotify, Gaana – used by short video apps (Moj, Josh) or on TV (ads, shows), Saregama gets paid.
In the 2020-21 financial year, the company earned Rs 284 crore or three quarters of its revenue by licensing songs from Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar et al.
Songs from Saregama’s catalog were streamed 85 billion times in the last fiscal year.
“Lata Mangeshkar was the greatest singer we had,” said Saregama executive director Vikram Mehra.
Mangeshkar’s songs have been streamed 6.7 billion times on her YouTube channel in the last 12 months. This number can shock even the star influencers.
The top songs on it are “Didi Tera Dewar Deewana” (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, 1994), “Yeh Galiyan Yeh Chaubara” (“Prem Rog”, 1982) and “Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko To Pyaar Sajna” (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge , 1995).
She has remained on the YouTube top 10 artists list along with many of her younger peers such as Alka Yagnik or Arijit Singh. And she has been at number 11 on the top artist charts worldwide for over 294 weeks.
Mangeshkar’s songs or videos are streamed millions of times from a variety of other platforms – Shemaroo, Saregama, Spotify, Gaana to name a few.
In 2013, Mangeshkar endorsed a brand, breaking her lifelong resolve. She appeared in an ad for Glycodin cough syrup. The others who came in from the cold were Bismillah Khan and Bhimsen Joshi. When asked why Glycodin, she replied I can afford anything but a sore throat!”
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