In a fiery critique of the Indian music broadcasting industry, renowned lyricist and filmmaker Mayur Puri has spoken out against what he calls a systemic and deliberate exploitation of songwriters, composers, and music creators across the country. According to Puri, the very platforms that thrive on music—private radio stations and streaming services—are refusing to pay basic royalties to the people who actually create the songs.
“Turn on any radio show, any radio channel,” he says, “the RJ will be yapping about how much they love music, paying ode and stuff, pretending to be in service of the music industry. But behind the scenes, they’re hungrily eating AD revenue and refusing to pay the people who have written or composed the song. That’s a legal obligation. But no one cares.” Puri points out that India has one of the best-drafted royalty laws in the world, but when it comes to enforcement, compliance is practically nonexistent. “Radio stations have already been humiliated in court—twice—in High Court,” he says. “Still they refuse to part with royalties. Now we’re heading to the Supreme Court. Maybe they want to be publicly humiliated on an even bigger stage.”
Puri is not just another aggrieved artist. He’s one of Bollywood’s most respected voices, with songwriting and dialogue credits on major films like Om Shanti Om, Happy New Year, and ABCD: Any Body Can Dance. His screenplay for Happy New Year was selected in 2014 for the permanent Core Collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—a rare honor for an Indian screenwriter. He has also directed the award-winning short film Firdaws and adapted global blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, and Jojo Rabbit into Hindi, proving his credibility not just in India, but internationally.
Puri draws a clear line between private radio stations and public broadcasters. “We, as artists, are big-hearted and responsible citizens,” he says. “If something is being aired on Akashvani or Doordarshan—where it reaches soldiers, farmers, people in remote villages—we don’t want to charge royalties. That’s our contribution to the nation. But private radio stations? You’re not doing seva. You’re making money. You’re making crores in ad revenue while refusing to give even a fraction to the artists whose songs you're airing all day. That’s not just illegal—it’s immoral.”
But his criticism doesn’t end with traditional media. Puri also turned his attention to some of the biggest digital platforms operating in India today, including one he pointedly refused to name. “There’s a platform—Indian—I don’t want to take its name because I love my life,” he said. “They’re streaming our songs for free, they have the biggest mobile service in the country, they’re using our songs as caller tunes and bundling them into subscriptions. And when we dragged them to court, they denied it. They said, ‘It’s a bundled service.’ The court said they’re doing it for free. I ask you—how can you sell something for free? That song is my child, and you’re selling off my child like it’s worthless.”
This exploitation, he argues, has devastating real-world consequences. There is no safety net for Indian artists. “In our industry, there’s no PF, no pension, no insurance, no security. Nothing. There are people in Tamil Nadu who have written over 3,000 songs in their lifetime. They should be national treasures. But they don’t have enough money for medical treatment. If someone suffers a heart attack tomorrow, they’re done. Their entire life savings are gone. How is that fair?” The situation, he says, is beyond negligence—it’s a national shame. “This is not just an industry problem. This is a societal failure. As a nation, we have failed our artists so badly. And no one seems to care.”
Mayur Puri isn’t mincing words. He is calling out a system that exploits creativity while rewarding corporate greed. He is demanding accountability from an industry that continues to profit off the unpaid labor of those who built it. His words are not just a warning—they are a battle cry. “This is wrong,” he says. “And we will all pay the price for ignoring it.”