Bollywood Doesn’t Decide Our Playlist Anymore

In astrology, an industry behaves like a collective personality. It grows, resists change, repeats what feels familiar, and transforms only when its karmic time demands it. The Indian music industry is no exception. For almost ten years, it has lived under Moon Mahadasha, and like the Moon itself, it held tightly to the comfort of memory. No matter how much technology evolved, the soundtrack of mainstream India kept circling back to old melodies, as if nostalgia were a national language.

Moon signifies remembrance, emotional protection, and attachment to what once worked. That is why
remakes never disappeared. Even today, labels like T-Series continue to reinvent old songs, not because the industry lacks talent, but because the Moon’s influence makes repetition feel safe. This habit didn’t begin recently—two decades ago, club DJs were remixing retro tracks because they instinctively knew that crowds responded more to what their hearts already recognized. Remakes were once a celebration of nostalgia. Under the Moon, they became a business strategy.

Yet every emotional comfort eventually reaches a limit. In a Moon-ruled chart, the 3rd house of media
becomes saturated when it leans too heavily on memory. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a pause
appeared. The pandemic silenced cinema halls, studios, promotions, and playback recordings. Bollywood waited for films to return before releasing music, but the audience didn’t wait at all. Listening became private. Discovery replaced dependence. What Moon tried to protect, silence dismantled.

During this period, something extraordinary happened outside the control of labels. The world began
listening to Indian artists directly on streaming platforms, without cinema as a mediator. Between 2019 and 2023, global streaming of Indian music surged by more than 2,000%. In 2024 alone, Indian artists were discovered 11.2 billion times on Spotify by first-time listeners around the world. Listeners didn’t need films anymore to decide which songs mattered. They followed sound, identity, and emotion—without permission.

This shift wasn’t accidental. As Moon’s influence weakened, Mars waited in the next dasha, preparing to take over in September 2025. Mars sits in India’s 2nd house—the house of voice and earnings. Where Moon relies on memory, Mars creates identity. Where Moon repeats, Mars asserts. Under Mars, music does not decorate cinema; it speaks for itself.

We can already see this shift crystallizing. Distributors report massive growth in non-film releases: one platform recorded a 12-fold increase in Hindi releases, alongside 3x growth in Punjabi and Tamil output over five years. If Moon wanted familiarity, Mars is demanding diversity. In 2022, hip-hop alone accounted for 36% of independent releases, followed by pop, electronic, and rock. These are not side genres anymore. They are voices forming a new cultural vocabulary.

Mars brings not just sound—it brings confrontation. Artists today do not wait for films to validate them. Divine does not narrate for a hero on screen; he is his own protagonist. Seedhe Maut doesn’t package their bars for commercial romance; their intensity exists for impact, not for approval. MC Stan became a national voice without altering his slang to suit cinematic polish. Talwiinder doesn’t wait for a film to embrace his emotional pop; his music already belongs to listeners. And Hanumankind stands as the clearest sign of Mars: a global aesthetic that does not imitate, but simply is.

Mars decentralizes power. This is visible not only in artistry, but in economics. Nearly 50% of Spotify
royalties for Indian artists in 2024 came from listeners outside India, proving that independent music is no longer a byproduct of Bollywood. It is a cultural export. Former gatekeepers now watch as artists claim their own audiences, build their own reach, and speak in their own languages. What once required a film now thrives without one.

In India’s D10 chart, Mars placed in the 6th house signifies competition with institutions. Mars fights,
challenges, grows through resistance. In the D24, Mars in the ascendant shows that production itself becomes self-taught, self-owned, and personal—an era of DIY creators who no longer need a studio system to make professional sound. Affordable software and home recording tools didn’t just empower musicians; they fulfilled a karmic shift toward self-authored music. Under Moon, music served cinema. Under Mars, music serves the artist.

This is the difference between an industry seeking acceptance and an industry expressing truth. Playback created voices for characters. Independent music creates voices for people.

Moon made India remember what music felt like. Mars will make India express what music means. Remakes will continue as habits of comfort, because Moon does not disappear overnight. But they will no longer define our emotional identity. The dasha has shifted, and with it, the destiny of sound is shifting too.

India’s music is not moving away from cinema.
It is moving toward itself.

Mars has arrived not to make louder songs, but to make truer voices.
This is not a trend. It is a transition from borrowed emotion to original frequency.
In that shift, independent music isn’t rising.
It is returning to where it always belonged—
in the voice of the artist, not the shadow of a film.

What to Expect in the Next 5 Years

Over the next five years, the Mars Mahadasha will create a soundscape driven by individual identity rather than collective taste, and this will change how we discover, consume, and respect music. Artists who write, produce, and perform their own work will rise faster than those dependent on external teams. Regional languages will not be seen as “alternatives” to Hindi; they will become the primary voices of cultural truth. The country will hear more rap in its mother tongues, more electronic-folk fusion built out of local rhythms, and more melodic pop that carries personal narratives instead of cinematic storylines. This period will also blur the line between underground and mainstream, because what begins in small communities will scale through audience loyalty rather than industry marketing.

At the same time, labels will not disappear, but they will be forced to adapt. Their role will shift from
controlling music to supporting artists who already command audiences. Deals will move from ownership to partnership; sync licensing, live performance collaborations, and brand alliances will overtake traditional film-driven contracts. Music will travel faster internationally because the global market will become curious about sounds that are emotionally honest rather than commercially fabricated. In this five-year window, the Indian music industry will not be defined by who has the biggest release budget, but by who has the truest and most fearless voice. This is the era where originality becomes currency, and where becoming a musicianis no longer about fitting into Bollywood’s story, but about letting India hear your own.

– Lunar Consultant 5077 || Know More About Your Chart