As a young Buckinghamshire girl, Anjula Acharia-Bath listened to Michael Jackson and wished Tina Turner and Blondie would wear saris. “Maybe kids wouldn’t have been so mean when they saw my mum wearing one,” she says. Life carried on and took an amazing turn when she co-founded (with husband Ranj Bath, and Arun Sandhu) her entertainment-lifestyle company Desi Hits, which focuses on South Asian culture. Besides a number of important players in the music business, Desi Hits has the touch of Jimmy Iovine, the co-founder of Interscope Records and chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M. Anjula has been instrumental in not just presenting Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Enrique Iglesias in India, she is shaping the way Priyanka Chopra is being positioned perceived in the US.

So, what makes Anjula tick? Excerpts from an email interview.

What was the starting point for Desi Hits?

Would you believe that Desi Hits started as a hobby out of my second bedroom? My husband Ranj (he was working with Intel at the time) had a hobby of creating east-west fusion music podcasts for fun and posting them on iTunes. After some traction he pulled in our third co-founder Arun Sandhu and surprisingly the podcasts went viral and before we knew it we were at 250,000 downloads. When I shared the numbers and details of the podcasts with a friend/colleague who I was working with from Trident Capital, he persistently encouraged me to pursue Desi Hits and build it into a tech platform that could showcase the best in fusion music.

We honestly didn’t think it could be built into something meaningful, it was a fun hobby, but with the help of some of our entrepreneurial friends and venture capitalists who initially encouraged us to pursue this, we went on to raise over $6 million from venture capitalists and noted media moguls, including Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine. We have learned a lot along the way and the company has certainly been through its ups and downs and evolved but our investors have been supportive and solid through this.

Since Desi Hits started (in 2006), how has the perception of Indian music, cinema and art changed among Westerners?

Tremendously! I think a significant tipping point was with Slumdog Millionaire. People became increasingly curious about that part of the world, and you notice hits of Indian culture in fashion, music, and movies. Indians are becoming “ethnically ambiguous” in the West, and that means big changes are upon us. Take Priyanka Chopra for example, she’s broken into two of the most quintessential American brands… the NFL and Guess. The face of the girl or guy next door has changed, and she’s the perfect example of that.

Panjabi MC’s Beware of the Boys with Jay Z was a gamechanger. You have met Jay Z. What does he think of Indian music?

When the Jay Z remix of Panjabi MC’s Beware of the Boys hit, bhangra fusion became a global phenomenon, Desi Hits was in exactly the right place at the right time. I began to realise that through music and with the West beginning to embrace Indian fashion and films, I had a way to actually make being desi “cool” in the eyes of young Indian-Americans who had displayed resistance to all things “desi”. I remember sitting down with Jay Z, who never knew the impact he had had on South Asian music until I told him. That track was such a huge gamechanger for South Asians. When I asked him about the song he said he just ‘loved the beat and the music’, it was very organic for him which made it all the more special.

Returning to Priyanka Chopra, how have you gone about positioning her in the West?

When I think about breaking artistes across the globe, for me, it’s always about penetrating local pop culture. When asked to break Gaga in India, it was a no-brainer; I knew she had to connect through Bollywood, its mass pop culture. And I believe the same is true for Priyanka. We’re pairing her with household names and brands, with the hope of showing the world that the girl next door is black, brown, Asian, blonde, brunette... diversity rules. Priyanka is also working with iconic producers who have shaped musical trends in America and globally. Redone, for example, changed radio with his first album with Gaga.

Presenting Lady Gaga and Britney Spears to India... was that ever easy?

I wouldn’t say anything is easy when you are working with huge stars like Britney or Gaga or anyone that has that kind of star power because everything you do is scrutinised by the media, fans and the artistes peers. When I brought Gaga to India it was a challenge because everyone I spoke to felt that her outspoken views and risque attire would create a negative backlash but there was a lot of work that went into creating and crafting the message, so people would look beyond that and value her for all the other things she represents and how that relates to our community. The trip was very successful. Again, when we worked with Britney Spears I loved coupling her with Sonu Nigam and he was brilliant at bringing in a desi flair to I Wanna Go without making it unpalatable to the West. Like I always say, it’s about curating the right team for the project.

I have also worked really closely with a great company, OML (the organisation behind NH7 Weekender), in India who really understand the needs of western artists.

How was it growing up in the UK and how different was life when you moved to the US?

I grew up in the UK, in a predominantly white and often very racist neighbourhood — the kids at school wouldn’t hold my hand because they were worried that the brown would rub off. It was really sad. I saw both my father and mother experience a lot of racism in their respective workplaces, but they never stopped fighting for their rights. Both my parents are from Punjab and my mother is from a Sikh family, my father from a Hindu one.... I met my husband in London, and eventually we married, then moved to San Francisco. I never really experienced racism in the US because if you worked hard and earned the respect of your peers you were one of them.

Ranj is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I know with a heart of gold. We have been best friends for nearly 20 years and he has supported all my dreams.

What was the music scene like when you were growing up?

I remember my friends listening to bands like Duran Duran, Blondie, Madonna and Spandau Ballet but when I came home my mum would often be listening to Hindi film soundtracks like Pakeezah and Umrao Jaan as well as kirtan. My brother loved heavy metal, so I would always have to listen to that — but the very special music from that era was Michael Jackson. I remember many nights as a child listening to his music on a cassette player under the covers, when I should have been sleeping!

What have been the big gamechangers when it comes to South Asian representation this millennium?

People ask me why I was so adamant that the Pussycat Dolls should wear saris and 50 Cent should be speaking Hindi. I said I’m doing all this to further the cause of South Asian culture in the public eye. In fact, I fondly remember this email that I received from a young girl who said that she was never connected to her culture until she saw Pussycat Dolls, who were her idols, in saris. She went running to her father and asked why he had never bought her clothes like those! It took her role models to help embrace her culture; I love that! I was always made to feel ashamed of my culture growing up and I was violently bullied for it, I wish Tina Turner or Blondie was wearing saris when I was a kid, maybe kids wouldn’t have been so mean when they saw my mum wearing one. So that was definitely a gamechanger, then Jay Z and Panjabi MC’s track Beware of the Boys, Slumdog Millionaire, Jay Sean’s breakthrough and jump cut… Priyanka Chopra as the first Indian face of Guess and on the NFL.

Finally, who are your celebrity crushes?

I’m, sooo boring! I don’t really have any now, because the ones I had, I met and then didn’t crush on them anymore! That’s the downside of working in showbiz. There are people I really admire like Aamir Khan and Will Smith, right now I am crazy about Kevin Spacey. Have you seen House of Cards? It’s the best thing to watch right now. We are in the golden age of TV and I love the quality and production value we are seeing on TV now, I’d way rather watch one of the amazing TV shows right now than go to the movies! That’s pop culture in America!

Who’s that girl?

Name: Anjula Acharia-Bath
Her family is from: Punjab
Grew up in: Buckinghamshire, UK
Now based in: Los Angeles
Company: Desi Hits, an entertainment-lifestyle company focused on South Asian culture

Has worked with: Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Enrique Iglesias, 50 Cent, A.R. Rahman, Priyanka Chopra and many more

Awards: Featured on the annual Top 40 Billboard “Women In Music” list 2012, Vanity Fair’s “The Next Establishment” list 2010, Billboard’s “International Power Player” List 2014, and NY Enterprise Report “Game Changers”

Mathures Paul
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