Lahari reaches 1 cr subscribers on YouTube

The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for Bengaluru-based Lahari Music as it now has one crore subscribers on YouTube. It has about 1.26 lakh songs on its catalogue.

Lahari Music is the largest recording company in the country after T–Series.

“Reaching one crore subscribers is a huge deal for us,” Lahari Velu, director of Lahari Music, told Showtime.

“Lahari was started 45 years ago by Manohar Naidu with the dream of making it big in the film and music industry, and here we are. Our struggles to make the transition from physical cassettes to online streaming are paying off,” says Lahari Velu.

Lahari shot to fame after it sold 36 lakh cassettes featuring Kannada songs from the Ravichandran-starrer ‘Premaloka.’ “The combination of Ravichandran and Hamsalekha spelt magic for us,” he recalls.

It later acquired the rights of other blockbuster Tamil movies such as ‘Roja’ and ‘Thalapathi’ and made strides in the Hindi and Telugu film industries too.

Lahari Music has also ventured into producing Sugama Sangeeta and devotional songs. “Our Bhavageethe channel in Kannada will soon reach eight lakh viewers and we wish to touch 10 lakh. With this, we will be the highest to get such views for this category,” he says.

Transitioning from grossing substantial cassette sales to the digital format took the brand three years. “The cassette and CD shops began to close and many people lost their jobs. That’s when we decided to go digital and brought our staff back. We have fared better than we thought we would,” says Lahari Velu.

Like other companies, Lahari too suffered losses due to Covid-19. “We spent the last eight months uploading our bank of songs. But what really got us through this tough phase was our Telugu song ‘Neeli Neeli Aakasam’ from ‘30 Rojullo Preminchadam Ela’. It crossed 19.7 crore views on YouTube." The company plans to release a single soon.

“We are hopeful of many new strides because the next generation at Lahari Music has stepped in with newer ideas and a greater vision,” Lahari Velu signs off.