When Dua Lipa Met Shah Rukh Khan: Outdustry Have Cracked Artist Campaigns

In 2019, worlds collided as pop star Dua Lipa met actor Shah Rukh Khan and within three months, the “Levitating” artist gained over a million followers from India on her Instagram. #DuaLipaMeetsSRK got trending on Twitter for three days after the meet-up.

These are the kind of stats that Roochay Shukla and music company Outdustry live for. The senior marketing manager at the India and China-headquartered company have gone on to initiate many more collaborations and link-ups between international and Indian artists – from Shirley Setia and JVKE, Arjun Kanungo and Vaultboy, Aksh Baghla and Lauv and more.

Celebrating their fifth year in action in India in 2023, Outdustry – founded by managing director Ed Peto – have worked their way into Indian music chatter through key initiatives that involve content localization, tracking the next big stars, working with the likes of ace producer Sez on the Beat for his platform/label THE MVMNT and their own label, Rule By Joy.

While content localization isn’t anything new, Shukla says it’s much more different than Vengaboys’ catalog targeting Indians or Michael Jackson doing a T.V. promo spot in Hindi for his 1996 Mumbai concert. “Today, data is at the back of everything and our international clients are studying all of that in the process of taking their artists and their songs to newer markets,” Shukla says.

It’s a deeper look and understanding of this kind of data that has led to artists like Lauv becoming huge in India. Shukla points out how, through short-form video platforms, artists gain hit songs through mashups. Case in point, Lauv’s “I Like Me Better x Dildara” (with 4.1 million views), Dua Lipa’s “Levitating x Woh Ladki Jo” (with over 5 million views) and meme-friendly producer Mayur Jumani’s take on Major Lazer & Nucleya (ft. Rashmeet Kaur)’s “Jadi Buti,” which has over 8.6 million views.

If not mashups and covers, the more tried and tested route are remixes, like singer-composer Amaal Mallik’s take on Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” with Sukriti and Prakriti Kakar. Shukla also points to how Shirley Setia’s Indian version of JVKE’s “Golden Hour” made a dent on Spotify charts for the original, plus it made India peak at #2 in the list of top countries on JVKE’s Instagram. Senior copyrights manager and marketing Aniket Rajgarhia adds, “The word ‘remix’ does have a particular connotation in India, especially when it comes to Bollywood. For us, it is about finding the right collaborators so that the music is great and the partnership seems authentic, which are the two important considerations for the audience.”

The growth, then, is not just in a singular metric like an increase in streams. Outdustry say they’re working towards increasing social following, trends, YouTube subscribers and more. As an artist services and rights management business “for the new music industry,” Outdustry works on a retainer basis with artists but also in turn invests in the artists. Shukla says, “When we start making these artists big in the country, the live opportunities grow for them too and that creates a demand for them to play more cities with bigger capacities with a gradual growth of the same every year.”

Case in point, Lauv counts as one of the next big star in India for Outdustry. Although we spoke to the company ahead of Lauv’s visit to headline Lollapalooza India 2024 in Mumbai in January, the results have been there for everyone to see what a memorable set can do for an artist. Shukla says, “We had laid down a one-year strategy for him which was a combination of content localization, local artist collaborations, local big press looks, and live opportunities. India is now his third biggest market in the world, overall contributing close to 10 percent performance-wise, based on a combination of Spotify streams, YouTube views and Instagram following.”

Within India and with local artists, Outdustry has set up The MVMNT and their own label, Rule By Joy. Co-founded by Faizan Khan, who is A&R manager at Outdustry, THE MVMNT quickly became Sez on the Beat’s venture for launching the desi hip-hop talents he believed in – from Dakait to Yungsta and more. They partnered with Mass Appeal India to bring out albums like Chaand Paar and Ab 17’s Tez Filam in 2022, Dakait’s Dev Nagri Aur Main and Yungsta’s Meen, both in 2023. Outdustry’s senior copyrights manager and marketing in-charge Aniket Rajgarhia adds, “We are looking forward to the next album from Ab 17 which will feature some prominent collaborators from the scene.”

The MVMNT can brag that a song like Dakait’s “Dev Nagri” with rapper Aniket Raturi had “purely organically” accrued over 3.8 million Spotify streams and 2.3 million YouTube views within months of release. “The combination of great songwriting, production, local Garhwali language and mesmerizing visuals helped propel the song into the minds and hearts of listeners […] The Uttarakhand Tourism Ministry also ended up using the song to promote the state, which was a proud moment for the artists,” Rajgarhia adds, crediting the video-makers Team Evolution as well.

Outside of THE MVMNT, Outdustry have launched their own label Rule By Joy in late 2023, so far releasing music by artists like Abhijay Sharma (“Coffeehouse”), Nikhil D’Souza (“Muskaan”), Meba Ofilia and Issamood (“Your Love” ft Dappest) and Aman Sagar and Cherish Banhotra (“Tu Jo Mila”). Marketing coordinator Riddhi Jobanputra says, “All of them are redefining the new age Indian pop sound and have brought their unique flair to the label.”

Rajgarhia adds that the groundwork for Rule By Joy started in 2021. “We are not in a hurry to put out a certain number of songs to capture market share right now. Instead, we are focussing on getting our offering right in order to help artists find the best home for their music while running a sustainable business,” he says. It’s the all-this-and-more approach that’s likely to make Outdustry here to stay and not like an outlier.