Bengaluru's licence rules are shutting down many iconic live music venues

Two iconic venues will shut shop by next week. Another 100-odd are at risk

After spending close to two hours setting up equipment and doing sound checks on August 29, Bengaluru-based singer-songwriter Mahesh Raghunandan was told he couldn’t perform as planned. Raghunandan, 27, peeped out from the backstage at bFlat, a restaurant and live music venue at Indiranagar, and found the audience waiting for him. 

Not wanting to let them down, he decided to go ahead with the performance, albeit unplugged. All the microphones and amplifiers were disconnected, as were the music mixers. “The audience pulled their tables and chairs forward and huddled close together. The staff continued serving them as quietly as possible. It was an amazing show of support. It was incredible,” says the musician.

That evening the police were doing the rounds of venues that host music performances. They had orders to interrupt the show if the place did not have a music licence — a rule unique to Bengaluru and which is dampening the city’s vibrant music scene.

Housed on the second floor, the soundproofed bFlat has been a popular venue among musicians and stand-up comics since it opened over a decade ago.

Recently, it put up a post quoting Irish boy band Westlife: “We had joys, we had fun/ We had seasons in the sun/ But the hills that we climbed/ Were just seasons out of time.” They were announcing the closure of the venue that could no longer operate under “the prevailing conditions” in Bengaluru.  

A few days after this, The Humming Tree, also a mecca for musicians for six years, announced that it would close by the end of September owing to struggles with the “myopic rules regarding music licences”. 

Chennai-based band, the F16s, performing at the Humming Tree in Bengaluru | Courtesy: The Humming Tree

bFlat, which chef-restaurateur Manu Chandra fondly refers to as “the last bastion of jazz music in the city”, can no longer promote music without a licence. Nor can another 100-odd places in Bengaluru. Take5, another venue for live music in Indiranagar, was among the first to shut shop last year.

The troubles are a result of the Licensing and Controlling of Places of Public Entertainment (Bangalore City) Order, which the city’s police commissioner issued back in 2005 to regulate places of public amusement and entertainment. 

According to the order, any place that hosts music requires a licence that can be issued only after seven documents have been submitted to the police. These include, among others, a fire and emergency safety certificate; an approved building plan; partnership deed; lease or title deed; and an occupancy certificate from the municipal administration. 

Now the occupancy certificate is issued only to landlords and not to tenants, but most pubs and restaurants operate out of rented premises. How can we produce a document that we cannot get in the first place, says Nikhil Barua, founder of The Humming Tree.

Over the last one and a half years, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has approached several officials, including the home minister, chief minister and police commissioner. “We wanted to draw attention to the fact that Bengaluru is the only city in the country where a licence like this is required, and that is preposterous. The ramifications of such an order seem to have completely escaped them,” says Chandra, the Bengaluru chapter head for NRAI.

“On one side the government talks about job creation and on the other it is quietly wiping out tens of thousands of jobs. The move will massively hit the state’s excise revenues, tax inputs and tourism,” he says. “This is besides the effect all this will have on the city’s vibrancy and cultural life.” While Bengaluru continues to be touted as one of the fastest growing Indian cities, Chandra sees these developments as “the return of the Licence Raj”. 

A few weekends ago, Chennai-based guitarist Abhinav Krishnaswamy’s indie-rock band The F16s was told that its performance, previously scheduled at Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined in Koramangala, had been shifted to a luxury hotel, The LaLit Ashok, owing to permit issues. “We played in the hotel’s ballroom. It’s a nice venue but our audience isn’t the kind that’ll come to a hotel,” says Krishnaswamy. Most of those who had already bought the tickets showed up, but a bulk of the tickets are sold on the spot, which couldn’t happen as the venue changed at the last minute.

The need for licensing was felt when several dance bars came up in Bengaluru, says Sandhya Surendran, founder of Bengaluru-based Lexic, a legal consultancy specialising in laws concerning the music and entertainment industry. “The police formed laws to regulate those dance bars. And in the course of tackling that, they included performances by bands as well as recorded music. This is why a large part of the city has no music anymore,” says the lawyer. Walk around Indiranagar and a majority of places agree that they keep the music turned down, if at all they play.

The police say restaurants and pubs can offer food, but there can be no music without a licence. This has come to mean a ban on music — including recorded music. “According to the 2005 order, any music, recorded or live or DJ music, needs a licence. We’ve rejected about 110 requests for licences in the past four or five months,” confirms Sandeep Patil, joint commissioner of police (crime).

Only a handful of places have been able to get the licence. “They (owners of pubs and restaurants) had challenged the 2005 order, but the Supreme Court upheld our actions in a ruling last year. We are just enforcing the rules,” says Patil.

The Supreme Court verdict came close on the heels of the tragic events that unfolded in December 2018, when a fire in a pub in the Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai claimed 14 lives.

Restaurateurs and musicians say that safety and occupancy certificate requirements should be the same for all businesses, but the need for a music licence is unfairly singling out their industry. 

Places such as bFlat and The Humming Tree have hosted many musicians from across the country, says Krishnaswamy. “This problem with live music has been going on for a while now. Every time things appear to be calming down, residents’ welfare associations raise a stink,” he says. Residents in these neighbourhoods are quite active on social media in voicing their displeasure against such venues. “We aren’t against music, but there are so many other issues: illegal parking, drunk, loud people late at night; taxis honking,” says a resident of Indiranagar.

One the other side are those who are worried about the loss of music. Last year, over 18,900 people signed an online petition, “#savemusicinblr”. 

While a solo musician earns between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000 per gig, for a band a show earns Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 on an average. Besides this, musicians also get a percentage of the ticket sales.

Close to 75,000 jobs are at immediate risk because of this rule, says Chandra. Though it’s hard to pin exactly how many jobs are at stake, the numbers are likely to be high considering that these venues don’t work in isolation. Their suppliers and associated vendors will also be hit if these places shut down.

Even as bFlat promises to return in another avatar sooner or later, Barua of The Humming Tree, who is launching the brand in Chennai and Mumbai, says he’ll hold off on things in Bengaluru for the time being. 

BFlat shuts down on October 2 and The Humming Tree on September 30. Bengaluru will miss their music.