Every city has a season. New York has fall. Tokyo has spring. Chennai has music. It is probably the only metropolis to have a month-long season of ragas. The Tamil month of Margazhi, from mid-December to mid-January, is when Chennai moves to a different talam. It woke up to TM Krishna singing Swathi Thirunal’s “Pankaja Lochana” in Raga Kalyani and Perumal Murugan’s freedom song on Christmas morning. It sat rapt listening to Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s “Sri Subramanyaya Namaste” in breathtaking Kambhoji, and Vishakha Hari’s “Andavane” in Shanmukhapriya.The Margazhi festival has been around for almost a century. It began with the founding of the Music Academy in 1928, celebrating, in particular, Carnatic music and Bharatnatyam.But is there a chill in the sabhas — the cultural organisations that are the force behind and the venue of concerts or kutcheris — this season? From insiders to hoteliers, many complain of a drop in the footfall of rasikas or connoisseurs. And yet a few others resist that narrative and say fans are flocking in and the festival is, indeed, on song.MISSING RASIKAS“There has been an almost 20% drop in footfall in kutcheris this year,” says a sabha insider and industry watcher, who does not want to be named. “Ticket sales have plummeted across the board this year. There are multiple reasons for this. For one, sabhas are livestreaming performances, which leaves very little incentive for people to attend a kutcheri in person as they are content listening to it on YouTube for free.” Tickets often cost between Rs 100 and Rs 750, with some artists charging as much as Rs 3,500 for VIP seating. Meanwhile, numerous singers perform for free.Star performers like Krishna — who returned triumphantly to the Music Academy, after a decade of cold war, to receive the Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi Award — and his bete noire in the controversy, the vocal duo Ranjani-Gayatri, sang to packed halls. As did Hari and Subrahmanyan. However, several artists, says the sabha insider, were unable to attract huge crowds.The hospitality sector, too, rues that there has been a fall in listeners. About 400 m from the Music Academy is the 87-yearold New Woodlands Hotel. It used to be sold out for the entire season, but not this year. “We were fully booked for only 15 days. We had a lot of cancellations and vacancies for the rest of the period,” says Venkataramana Babu , general manager of the hotel. “We have been seeing a dip in bookings over the years, but this time was the lowest so far. Many of the patrons are very old and cannot travel. There is also added travel anxiety because of the heavy rains and floods in Chennai around this time.”117155024Babu says the Margazhi festival is an important contributor to the hotel’s revenue in December, one of their busiest months. “After this season, we will have to chalk out some plans to offset the slowdown we are seeing during Margazhi,” he says.Down the road is the 50-year-old Hotel Maris, flanked by the Music Academy and Narada Gana Sabha. It has been an accommodation of choice for rasikas for decades. The hotel’s general manager, Vijay Venkatesh, says the festival feels different this year: it does not have the “buzz” of previous years. “We generally have 85% occupancy during the Margazhi season but this year it is only around 50%,” says Venkatesh. “Only 60% of our regular patrons have showed up this year. Tour operators, who are generally on an overdrive planning large groups for the Margazhi season, have gone silent this year. We barely got any enquiries for bulk bookings.”The industry watcher says sabhas need to move with the times. Chennai has around 36 sabhas of which the largest are the Tamil Isai Sangam, The Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha, Parthasarathy Sabha, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha and Vani Mahal. The insider says that, barring the big names, sabhas are having a tough time pulling in the crowds. He blames it partly on the lack of infrastructure such as good acoustics, comfortable seating and even clean toilets. “On a good day when star musicians are performing across sabhas, there will be 3,000-4,000 listeners,” says the sabha insider. “That is still a very minuscule number compared with what popular music attracts. It is a very niche audience and one that has gotten used to listening to Carnatic music for free. The smaller sabhas do not make any money. It is the duty of the rasika to buy tickets because unless that happens, the sabhas will see no money.”The larger sabhas, the insider adds, are better off as they let out their concert halls throughout the year for various performances and functions, which keep the cash register ringing.A FULL HOUSENarada Gana Sabha does not have any complaints. Says secretary K Harishankar: “This year we saw a larger crowd than we did in 2022 and 2023. We sold more season tickets and daily tickets and got more revenue than in the last two years. It looks like the festival has stabilised after the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.” He says there are about 10 established sabhas that conduct concerts during the music season.“These sabhas have concerts and functions through the year whereas the smaller venues generally come together only during the Margazhi season. For them, the crowds depend on the performer. For us, we had houseful shows for five or six artists, including Ranjani-Gayatri, Sandeep Narayan and Vishakha Hari.”Hari, a Carnatic music vocalist and proponent of Harikatha, says she had 12 performances, which ran to packed houses across sabhas. “A lot of the sabhas bank on seasoned performers to draw the crowds. Some of my shows were ticketed at Rs 2,500 which is not something I’m very comfortable with because it makes my art form out of reach of a large audience,” she says. “But sabhas, too, have to run and often shows of established artists are sold at a premium so that concerts of young, up=and-coming artists can have lower ticket rates. I would say it is reasonable to charge up to Rs 1,000 but not more.” Hari, a Carnatic music vocalist and proponent of Harikatha, says she had 12 performances, which ran to packed houses across sabhas. “A lot of the sabhas bank on seasoned performers to draw the crowds. Some of my shows were ticketed at Rs 2,500 which is not something I’m very comfortable with because it makes my art form out of reach of a large audience,” she says. “But sabhas, too, have to run and often shows of established artists are sold at a premium so that concerts of young, up-and-coming artists can have lower ticket rates. I would say it is reasonable to charge up to Rs 1,000 but not more.” Singer Sandeep Narayan says there was a 40% uptick in ticket sales for his concerts this year over last year. “I performed 12 shows of which three were sold out. Only two had a smaller turnout. At every show a handful of people would come up to me and say that they discovered my music on social media. For some, it was their first ever Carnatic music experience,” he says.AFTER THE CARNATIC WARSThis year’s music festival was preceded by months-long acrimony. In March, when the Music Academy decided to honour Krishna with the Kalanidhi Award, the Carnatic music world cleaved into two. Since 2015, Krishna had boycotted the Margazhi season, criticising the Carnatic music community for discriminatory practices and elitism. The vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri said they were withdrawing from their December 25 concert at the Academy as the season would be presided over by Krishna who, they alleged, had caused “immense damage” to the Carnatic music world, and “wilfully and happily stomped” over the sentiments of the community.This season, Ranjani-Gayatri sang to packed halls across the city but did not sing for the Music Academy. Krishna, however, took the Music Academy stage on December 25 and performed to a full house. Some singers say a drop in footfall could be true of certain sabhas but it cannot be said of the festival as a whole.117155035Says vocalist Palghat Ramprasad: “I had about 12 shows this season and I did not see any drop in rasikas. In fact, I would say there was a marginal increase. The fall in patronage at certain halls might be seen as a mark of silent protest by certain rasikas. But to say that this was the case across the board would be inaccurate.”Ramprasad says the number of youngsters attending concerts has gone up. “Social media has helped us reach this demographic that is curious to know more about classical music,” he says. “Many of my students travelled for the Margazhi festival and I would argue that the landmark hotels that once housed rasikas saw a drop in occupancy probably because all these youngsters are staying in Airbnbs and serviced apartments.”FOOD OF LOVEWhether the rasikas went to the sabhas or not, they did flock to the sabha canteens. “During the entire December music season, if we keep the average price of a ticket at Rs 250, concerts bring in just over Rs 1.3 crore to Chennai sabhas,” said V Sriram, music historian and secretary of the Music Academy, at a recent talk on the economics of the Margazhi season . “Meanwhile, food at sabha canteens brings in Rs 6 crore. Concert ticket sales are nowhere near canteen sales. People from various parts of the city think there is a food festival going on and dine at the canteens.”Music may be the food of love but it still comes second to the love for food.
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