Expensive tickets good for bands, bad for audience: Singer-actor Piyush Mishra

Mishra, a multi-hyphenate, is known for socially-conscious songs such as 'Aarambh' and 'Duniya' in 'Gulaal', 'Ik Bagal' in 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Ghar' and 'Husna' in Coke Studio.

New Delhi: Singer-actor Piyush Mishra, who is all set to go on a multi-city tour with his music band Ballimaaraan in November, says art becomes unreachable when ticket prices are high and while it is good for music bands, it makes things difficult for the public.

Mishra, a multi-hyphenate, is known for socially-conscious songs such as 'Aarambh' and 'Duniya' in Gulaal, 'Ik Bagal' in Gangs of Wasseypur, 'Ghar' and 'Husna' for Coke Studio.

"Art is becoming unreachable, but what can you do? You can’t do anything about it. It’s a really big thing when the ticket prices reach lakhs of rupees, it’s actually very good for the band but makes things difficult for the common people,” Mishra told PTI.

After British band Coldplay announced its India tour recently, its tickets were sold out within minutes and later were available on unauthorised channels for amounts ranging up to as much as Rs 12 lakh for one ticket.

A similar situation occurred when Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh announced his ‘Dil-Luminati World Tour’, the tickets for which were black marketed for over Rs 85,000.

Asked about the exorbitant ticket prices of concerts, Mishra wondered how a common man would approach this.

The 62-year-old said his band Ballimaaraan’s philosophy is that the more people it reaches, the better.

"It’s good if it’s acceptable to more people. The more people accept Ballimaaraan’s songs the more we’ll enjoy it,” Mishra added.

The Gangs of Wasseypur actor will be hitting the roads from November 9. The group will travel to 15 Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Indore, Bhopal, Pune, Thane, Raipur, and Hyderabad.

Mishra's band has performed almost 20 shows across India, along with an additional 12 shows abroad last year.

It has become a process to keep learning from each show to figure out what works and what does not, he said.

“With each show our performance becomes sharper. We learn from each show, we learn what mistakes we made. And if we improve something then we try to make it even better the next time. We are continuously growing with each show."

The 14 member band was formed in 2016 and includes Mishra as the lead vocalist, Nishant Agarwal on guitar, Varun Gupta on percussion, Yohaan Samuel Pissurlenker on bass guitar, Shreyas Iyer on drums, Natasha Pinto on keyboard, Harshit Shankar on flute, and Nastya Saraswati on saxophone, among others.

Apart from writing unforgettable lyrics, the National School of Drama alumni is known for his acting in films like Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur, Maqbool, and Rockstar, and theatre productions, especially acclaimed production of Gagan Damama Bajyo on the life of Bhagat Singh.

While he has managed to take time out for his film projects, theatre demands more time and presence from him, Mishra said.

“Soon there will be a couple of projects (films) that will show that I am still acting with complete dedication. But with theatre, either this (music) or that, that is the question. Theatre is also time consuming. I have to choose between the two, since the public requires my presence in both,” he added.

The UdanKhatola tour, co-produced by Tamboo Entertainment and Thinking Hats, will end in Kanpur on March 2, where the actor-lyricist will also launch his debut album, UdanKhatola.