Gulshan Dua was born into a Punjabi Hindu family in Delhi, where he started working in his father's fruit juice shop. Later, his family acquired a shop selling records and audio cassettes, which began Gulshan's career in the music business. Gulshan built a vast music empire through his company T-Series by pirating music from established labels like HMV and Polydor in the 1970s-1980s. He was able to undercut these labels by not paying royalty fees or excise taxes. Though illegal, piracy was not a cognizable offense at the time, allowing Gulshan to avoid prosecution. Gulshan's success through alleged piracy and plagiarism changed the Indian music industry.

1. Made by :-
HARSH .K. RANA

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Gulshan Dua was born into
a Punjabi Hindu family,
He was the son of Chandrabhan, a fruit juice
seller in Darya Ganj market in Delhi,
Where he started working early on. Later
Gulshan changed career paths when his family
acquired a shop selling records and cheap
audio cassettes,
This was the beginning of what was to become
a vast music empire.

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What Gulshan Kumar did was simple -- and everyone
knew it had nothing to do with management. He began
in 1979-80 by making all his money from piracy. In
those days, His Master's Voice, an established player in
the market, was the biggest sufferer, followed by
Polydor. For here was this man, traversing the
catalogues of both HMV and Polydor with impunity,
picking up music from both, compiling them in one
cassette and selling it as a T-series recording.
The only capital expense he had was the cost of the
cassette -- Rs 7 -- and the cost of duplicating. This
cassette was retailed at about Rs 25. Because HMV and
Polydor were law-abiding outfits run by professional
managers they were required to pay, in addition to
royalities, an excise duty of 15 per cent on every
cassette.

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Gulshan Kumar could not have paid excise duty -- for
that he would have had to admit that he was running
an illegal operation. So he simply passed the 15 per
cent benefit on to the customer. And when HMV had
already paid royalties, why should he?
HMV and other players were also handicapped by the
legal definition of copyright violation -- piracy was not
a cognisable offence, so you had to prove cassettes
were being pirated before getting a warrant of arrest.
This was well nigh impossible. So often HMV's
managers felt like birds beating their wings in a cage.
The courts were tardy in giving relief, the police were
often informers, tipping Gulshan off about an excise
raid. So he went from strength to strength, producing
cassettes minus the music cost.

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In July 1997, some of the leading personalities
from the Indian music industry gathered for a
meeting at a five-star hotel in Chennai.
Among those attending were representatives
from music companies like Venus and Tips
Industries (Tips) and the owner of Super
Cassettes Industries, Gulshan Kumar
(Gulshan). The meeting had been called to
persuade Gulshan to co-operate with the other
music companies.

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Gulshan Kumar, who changed the face of the
Indian music business,
On 12 August 1997, he was killed outside the
Jeeteshwar Mahadev Mandir, a Hindu temple
in Jeet Nagar, Andheri West suburb of Mumbai
west Bombay, on Tuesday morning.

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Gulshan's death brought to the attention of the
nation the story of a man who had allegedly
built an empire on music piracy and
plagiarism. Super Cassettes' 'T-Series' had
completely changed the way the Indian music
industry functioned, allegedly by successfully
exploiting the loopholes in India's anti-piracy
regulations.