Anjula Acharia Bath

“Innovation is born out of people challenging the status quo.”

By Kavita A Chhibber

She was among the select few who were named 2010 Game Changers by The New York Enterprise Report. “These entrepreneurs are changing how business gets done,” said the tagline. Yet what stands out about Anjula Acharia Bath is not what she’s achieved along with her co-founders (husband Ranjh Bath and his cousin Arun Sandhu) in terms of taking their baby Desi Hits to great heights. What makes her special is what people say behind her back.

She tears up when told that people say she runs her business and her life with integrity, humility and great decency – that she is God fearing and would never compromise on her values or build her success on someone else’s failure.

In an exclusive interview with Kavita, Anjula Acharia Bath shares memories of growing up in England, the birth of Desi Hits and what social responsibility means to her.

Whenever I ask people living in the UK how the growing years were, it seems to be a mixed bag for South Asians.

It was a very difficult time for me. I grew up in an area that was predominantly white. We were the only family of color, so to speak. So I didn’t grow up among South Asians, but in a pretty racist environment. Every weekend, our garage would be painted with swastikas. It didn’t matter which ethnicity you belonged to – it was just a very intolerant society. And there is only that much your parents can protect you from and mine tried their best. There were times I would come home crying to my mother when someone pushed me around physically and she would go rushing to the school and fight with the teachers for not watching over me… but most of the time, I had to rough it out by myself.

My parents are from India but it was a mixed marriage. They were very liberal and respected and exposed us to all religions. They taught us that we must be good human beings above anything else and forgive people’s ignorance. I was told to be like a lotus that rises above the muddy waters. So when people were being mean to me and the environment was unhealthy, and I wanted to retaliate to protect myself, I found my solace in the performing arts.

I was drawn to the arts and music very early on because it was a beautiful world where I could escape and rise above my color and the prejudices that came with it. I could express myself through theater because there, you are no longer seen as “a colored person.” It wasn’t easy because roles for people who weren’t white were hard to come by. I still remember as a child I was in a Nativity play and the teacher told me I could not be an angel because “there were no brown angels.” I went home crying to my mother. My mother is a firebrand. I think she should be a civil rights lawyer. She went to the teacher and told her firmly but politely the various reasons why I should be an angel.

That was the cool thing about my mother. She always got her way because she was never afraid to confront injustice but she did it in such a thoughtful and logical way that people had no choice but to give in.

Still – theater became my refuge. When you were on stage you forgot your ethnicity, the cultural and racial boundaries people were trying to impose. My parents really encouraged me. They were unlike other South Asian parents who wanted their kids to be doctors, engineers and lawyers. Mine encouraged me to express myself through the performing arts.

There were days when it was so hard that I wanted to give in. I would feel sorry for myself and say “yes there are no brown angels, yes there is no brown character in Shakespeare,” but my mother stood firmly behind me always telling me to stand up for myself and against injustice.

How was the music scene in those days?

Well it was a part of mainstream UK, but not in a way that we could embrace it proudly. When we listened to Bhangra music it was with our car windows up, because if you stopped at a red light and your car windows were down, people hurled abuses and spewed racial slurs asking you to shut off that music. There was also a generational gap where our parents listened to Indian music and we listened to mainstream music. There was no connect. But that changed in a strange way for me. It was while walking with some English friends that I reluctantly entered a club showcasing a South Asian night. We had plenty of those in most clubs, but I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to go in. I was worried my friends would find Indian music comical and would make fun of it. But we entered and were surprised. The music was fusion – a mix of Indian bhangra beats and hip hop. My friends loved it and so did I. They danced to hip hop and I was dancing to the bhangra. And there were young people of every race and color there that night. The DJ who had created this unique sound, and was the pioneer of fusing the bhangra and hip hop later became my husband!

You moved to California from London when your husband’s job took him to the US. How much of a culture shock was that?

I think what shocked us most was the segregation amongst the South Asian community. Some of the terminology was pretty surprising. They were classifying each other. There were the ABCDs (“American born confused desis”) and then there were the FOBs (“Fresh off the boat”). I had never even heard of these terms in the UK. I said okay so I guess I’m a FOB, because I’ve come from Britain. But then they said no you are not a FOB because you have a British accent. Then someone else said condescendingly: “Anjula, when we come to the UK, we see all these Indians at airports and other places doing menial chores, working very hard. But here as you can see we have doctors and engineers and lawyers who are doing so well and are high up the intellectual ladder.” I found that very offensive that we looked down upon our own people that way and created these divisions.

In England everyone is a 2^nd or 3^rd generation Indian and everyone’s experiences are the same, so you don’t see that kind of generational culture clash.

We also ended up invariably attending only South Asian parties. In the UK, everyone is part of the mainstream. You will find even in Indian weddings half the invitees to be English.  South Asian food, our music is all an integral part of the mainstream. London is really a melting pot of all cultures. Here there were layers and nothing mingled or melted into the other. The various ethnic groups mingled only with each other. And that also was one of the reasons behind Desi Hits.

My husband and I were at a party and we met these two distinct groups. One was listening to the likes of Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and said they hated Bollywood music. The other was doing just the opposite. We said what about stuff that connects both? And they said they hadn’t heard anything like that. We started talking to them about the music we had in England which was a fusion of Justin Timberlake or 50 Cent with the Bhangra beats.

When we came back my husband said he wanted to create a podcast with the fusion music he had made so popular in the UK as a DJ. So he created that first podcast and sent it to the 15 kids that we had met and said, “This is what I was talking about.” And they all loved it. They emailed us back and said can you do another one? He said sure and then I got involved and started having fun with it. It just went viral after that and the next thing we knew we had quarter million downloads, and people asking where they could buy the music.

Had I known this would happen I may have changed the way we did things. We were just having fun with it. I loved the fact that the kids were embracing it and being united through music. That this music finally made them proud of their culture and that they could all be participants in the same experience, the same journey.

I knew what it was to be on the outside looking in and my only escape was music. I had no South Asian role models growing up and I wanted that for these young South Asians.

People ask me why I was so adamant that the Pussycat Dolls should wear saris and 50 Cent should be speaking in 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 a sari. She went running to her father and asked why he had never bought her clothes like those! It took her role models to embrace her culture. I never had that. Bollywood actors/singers were all so far from my experiences growing up, and I never embraced my culture or appreciated it.   And so I wanted these youngsters to not have that handicap. Today my family laughs that the girl who didn’t want to be Indian is making everybody else Indian!

The excitement of what we were doing and accomplishing consumed me and became my favorite conversation. I would talk about it everywhere with such happiness and enthusiasm and that is how we got the funding to take it to the next level.

I’m a firm believer in fate. It’s been over 4 years since Desi Hits came into being and it’s been fascinating to see how things fell into place, how people came in and helped from nowhere, how SlumDog Millionaire happened to come along when the markets went down and everyone said no one will survive in this economy including us. Slumdog Millionaire ended up being that major shot in the arm. But how the tide moved in my direction had nothing to do with me- it was destined to happen.

I’ve always believed the right people will come to me when the time is right,

I remember about 3 years ago everyone wanted me to meet Jay-Z. They felt he would totally get what we were doing and someone or the other said they would try and help us meet him. I said don’t worry. It will happen when it is meant to be. I never get desperate. His involvement in Punjabi MC’s “Beware of the Boys” had singlehandedly changed the way our music was finally heard in the UK. When Michael Jackson brought in a Kathak dancer in one of his videos we were beside ourselves. But “Beware of the Boys” finally gave us mainstream respectability. We could finally listen to Bhangra with our windows rolled down.

In the meantime I was about to have a meeting with Jimmy Iovine, who totally got our concept. He was in LA and said he would shortly be in New York. He usually travels with a large entourage and I requested a one on one meeting so that we aren’t interrupted by others. He agreed. We had a 45 minute breakfast meeting and he said: “Listen do you mind if a friend of mine joins us?” I thought well I’ve already taken 45 minutes of his time so that’s alright. Fifteen minutes later Jay-Z walks in and sits on the table and Jimmy asks: “Do you know who Jay-Z is?”  Jay never knew the impact he had had on South Asian music until I told him. That track was such a huge game changer for us South Asians in the UK.

And then the bigger game changer Slumdog Millionaire happened.

Yes, Jimmy called me and said you know there is this movie Slumdog Millionaire and I’m distributing the sound track and by the way, do you know who A.R. Rahman is? I was like – do I know who A.R. Rahman is? He is one of the greatest musicians out of India, and I really like his music. Jimmy said he was going to do  remix of “Jai Ho” and take it to mainstream America. I fondly remember the times we were in the studio with Nicole (Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls) and A.R. and also working with the lyricist on the changes to bridge the gap between the audiences.

Rahman is such a deep man and very quiet but I think the exposure here has made him open up in a really good way. And the rest as they say is history.

A friend of mine said to me once that the harder you work the luckier you get. But I’m sure there must have been many challenges along the way.

The biggest challenge was that we were discouraged by our own people when we started out. We were told what we were doing would not amount to anything. In fact the people who helped us tremendously in the beginning were all Jewish. One of my biggest mentors is Jewish. It was sad that we couldn’t get our own people to embrace and support us because to a great extent we were doing this for them.

No artist wanted to talk to us. The only person who agreed was Jay Sean. He is such an open minded, humble man and he was a big deal in the UK when we approached him. We told him how we had this podcast that had gone viral in the US and we wanted him to be a part of it. While others refused to talk to us or even answer our emails, Jay immediately agreed to work with us. He was far-sighted enough to realize that he could have a huge market in the US. And I feel so proud that we had him in the top 10 on the billboard and he beat out  the likes of Black Eyed Peas. He had a vision he went for it with an open mind. And his participation opened many doors for us  including the deal with Universal and how today we can get access to whomever we want given who he is today.

You are now showcasing talent from India to a global audience. The internet has become huge asset for this kind of work. What has been the experience like?

Yes I go to India very frequently because we want continued collaboration between Indian celebrities and mainstream celebrities here. We have a huge following in  India and the kids in India today are so much more multi cultural than their parents.

Just  as music made me find who I am and define who I am, they are ready to have that shared experience on a global platform and connect with one another. I’ve grown up with a lot of angst, and I don’t want others to grow up that way. I think one of the challenges I’m facing there is to create something that is a fusion of cultures but also resonates globally. The artists there create music with a firm idea of what they want it to be and then you have tread gently and tell them that may not work and how it has to be changed in a way that will keep everyone happy.

When Pussycat Dolls did their version of “Jai Ho” many people were up in arms about it. They said the song was a work of art by Rahman and had now been turned into bubblegum pop. Look at what a huge hit that song became and  how it connected with a global audience.

I also see that Indian artists are not treated as equals. The issue of royalties that Sonu Nigam raised is very very important and I’m totally on his side on that one. When these artists sign up with Desi Hits that changes. They are treated like any other mainstream artist here, they get royalties and other perks. Bollywood rules the music industry and their rules are not favorable to musicians. I think everyone should be rewarded for the success of their work.

What they have in India is an antiquated model. We are going to change that; some people will like it and others will feel threatened and I’m prepared for that.

Another interesting thing is also that since Indian artists don’t have an infrastructure to support them, those who succeed are very self motivated. Sonu Nigam is a great example of that. He is perhaps the greatest artist to emerge out of India from Bollywood. In fact I think he is the voice of Bollywood and look  how far he has come because he is so self motivated. He knows that if he wants a change, say certain legislation, he has to set the ball rolling himself. Here the artists are not like that. They have managers and lawyers to handle that. Indian artists also work a lot harder than the artists here. They’ll land at the airport and will head straight for the studio and start working. The artists here want their writers, need that many weeks to get it done and so on.

As someone who can influence millions of people, what does social responsibility mean to you?

I have to say my heart belongs to our children. I don’t have any of my own yet, but something someone said to me really got to me. She said, “You Indians only care about your own children don’t you? Otherwise there would not be so many destitute children on the streets of India.” I think for that is the most heart breaking thing because seeing those kids on the streets begging, being told not to give them any money because then I would be encouraging crimes against these children makes me feel helpless. They are maimed and blinded and made to beg.

Also I was taken aback by the comment that people see Indians in that light. I was staying with a friend in Bandra and the talk was if you give the kid a 100 rupees you are just giving him or her a meal for a day. How does that help in the long run? I remember handing over money to kid after kid crying and then waking up my husband at 4 a.m. still crying my eyes out. I said I just can’t sit here and not do anything for these children I have asked God to show me direction but I still don’t know what to do. He said okay calm down, let’s get up in the morning and talk to your friend Nikki and see what she says.

When I talked to her she said, “Oh I go this wonderful ashram that has kids with HIV or full blown AIDS and they are either orphans or have been given up by their family because they are not able to take care of them and you can help them.” So I went there armed with all the things they may need and had a wonderful time playing with them, giving them food and gifts.

I have been supporting children for 20 years. I’ve sponsored children but I never knew where my money went or found out later that a lot of it went into administrative costs. And we visited, some other places but we weren’t allowed to see the kids, or interact with them. We just had to leave our donation and go. But this was wonderful. There are about 36 children in this lovely ashram right in the middle of Bandra. I can go there any time unannounced and they always welcome me with the smile. I can see the children any time and interact with them. I have a dream that once I’ve taken Desi Hits to where it is supposed to be, I want to spend more time in India supporting other projects like this one. I believe kids of the world are our responsibility and we need to support and nurture them.

Tell me about the invisible man who is behind your success, your husband Ranjh?

(Laughter as Ranjh walks in at that precise moment and makes a mischievous comment)

What can I say? He is certainly not invisible to me. He is a huge force behind Desi Hits. He is the man who makes it all tick behind the scene. We are three co-founders, Ranjh, his cousin Arun Sandhu and I.  We all have a very different set of skills. Arun does all the celebrity interviews. He is the one who hangs out the likes of Lady Gaga, and the Pussycat Dolls so he has the most fun job. I’m the one who does all the networking, meeting all the big business people and forging relationships with them and Ranjh – bless his heart – is the technical wizard who makes sure that everything is running smoothly, that everyone gets paid on time and all the issues are resolved. He learns things on the fly and irons out all the chinks. When we first found Desi Hits I would be going to bed after writing a bunch of articles or doing a radio show and ask him: “Aren’t you coming to sleep?’ He would answer: “No I found a bug in our software we need to fix.” I’d ask “Do you know how to do it” And he would answer: “No but I will by the morning.” I would wake up and still see him up. The bug would be fixed because he had spent the whole night reading a book on coding figured it out and taken care of the problem. Once he sets his mind to it he gets it done! He is our unsung hero but a key player in our dream.

I hear there is a novel in the works

I’ve been writing that for at least 14 years. It’s with a publisher. The working title as of now is “Indian remix”. The remix music is a metaphor for 2 girls growing up as second generation Indians going through their own cycle, their whole experience of mingling with others, their relationships, and “remixing” themselves to adapt to these different worlds they find themselves in.

So what does being a game changer mean to you?

For me it means to continue to question, and create something unique and not necessarily by going up a beaten path; and to have the stamina to do it because I have had so many challenges. It takes a lot of stamina. To do something different is exciting but it’s hard. There is a line in my book, “Innovation is born out of people challenging the status quo,” and I really believe that there is no one way of doing things. For me a game changer is a person who asks a lot of questions, finds the answer… and then acts on it.

And finally, is there a question that you’ve never been asked and wished you had been?

Oh wow! No one has asked me that! But to answer your question – no one seems to see the difference between Desi Hits the label and Desi Hits the platform. We want to do for Indian artists, what Def-Jam did for hip-hop.

But when I talk about Desi Hits the platform, no one has ever asked me in what vein do I see that? I really see it like BET (Black Entertainment Television). I was reading about the founder and how he used to come out of advertising agencies with tears in his eyes because no one wanted to support his venture. People felt it had no market. He didn’t give up and BET was eventually acquired by Viacom for $3 billion. The story really resonated as did their journey because I’m developing Desi Hits the same way. It is a young platform of culturally driven entertainment reaching out and speaking to a global audience. I am looking forward to meeting the founders of BET some day. They have already done what I’m aspiring to do and I really see them as my role models.

KavitaChhibber.com thanks Pooja Jain for facilitating this interview.