I have always wondered what were the audio sales figures of the soundtracks released by A.R. Rahman. The site below previously had published audio sales figures for Hindi movie soundtracks from 1990 onwards but the site never mentioned from where it had obtained the figures.
I have extracted the audio sales figures for movies with music by A.R. Rahman. The biggest selling soundtrack for each year is also included to compare with the sales performance of releases from A.R. Rahman.
1993
Dilwale - 5,500,000
Roja - 2,800,000
1994
Hum Aapke Hain Kaun - 10,000,000
The Gentleman - 3,000,000
1995
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - 9,000,000
Rangeela - 3,200,000
Bombay - 3,000,000
Hum Se Hai Muqabla - 2,500,000
1996
Raja Hindustani - 11,000,000
Hindustani - 1,800,000
1997
Dil To Pagal Hai - 12,500,000
Sapnay - 2,500,000
Daud - 2,000,000
1998
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - 8,000,000
Dil Se - 4,500,000
Jeans - 1,800,000
1999
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai - 9,000,000
Taal - 4,000,000
2000
Mohabbatein - 5,000,000
Fiza - 2,500,000
2001
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - 3,500,000
Lagaan - 2,800,000
Nayak - 1,400,000
2002
Humraaz - 2,200,000
Saathiya - 2,000,000
2004
Veer Zaara - 3,000,000
Swades - 1,300,000
Kisna - 1,200,000
2005
Aashiq Banaye Aapne - 2,000,000
Rang De Basanti - 1,900,000
The biggest selling soundtrack from A.R. Rahman in Hindi is "Dil Se" released in 1998 with estimated sales of 4.5 million units. The overall sales began to plummet from the high of 12.5 million units for "Dil To Pagal Hai" in 1997 to a low of 3.5 million units in 2001 for "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham". I still remember when I was studying in university in 2000, I was already downloading songs from the Internet. From LPs to cassettes to CDs to digital downloads - how we listen to music has evolved with downloads dominating the music industry in recent years.
In the article Audio tape producers ride crest of Bollywood's music boom, composers become stars published on 30 November 1993:
Perhaps the slickest and most innovative marketing strategy belongs to Ghanshyam Hemdev of Pyramid Audio in Madras. Convinced that consumer products should be marketed with a Unique Selling Strategy (USS), Hemdev decided to push the tape of Gentleman, the Tamil industry's latest talking point. They set targets for dealers and those who met them were given free tickets to Singapore; newspapers were swamped with advertisements; and free tapes were distributed to tea shops and at marriage halls.
The result: at the first show of the movie, the audience were humming the tunes as if they'd heard them for ages, and Gentleman, became the highest selling tape in recent times, with a sale of three lakh copies.
In the article A.R. Rahman makes history with record breaking audio cassette sales of his debut film 'Roja' published on 15 January 1994:
After all, the youngest music director to hit the Tamil screen has made history recently with the record breaking audio cassette sales of his debut film, Roja, with over two lakh tapes sold in Tamil alone.
Though he has only five films to his name, two of which are still unreleased, Rahman's name sells. He was paid Rs.7 lakh for his last film, while Ilayaraja, the brilliant composer for 500 films, gets only Rs.3 lakh more.
Today, any Rahman composition is expected to sell one and a half lakh tapes. Ghanshyam Hemdev, the head of Pyramid Audios, calls him "the phenomenon that changed the face of the industry".
In the article King Rehman's USP diminishes with a new, synth-savvy bunch published on 15 September 1997, it's highlighted that Pyramid's Ghanshyam Hemdev bought the audio rights for "Iruvar" for Rs 60 lakh, and spent Rs 4.97 lakh promoting it.
In the article Last of big music deals: Devdas sells for Rs 11 cr published on 4 July 2002:
Gone are the days of yore when Yaadein was sold to Tips Industries for Rs 9.15 crore; or when Sony Music snapped up K3G and Lagaan rights for Rs 10 crore and Rs 8 crore, respectively.
In the article A R Rahman: Composing a winning score published on 21 September 2002:
And, last year, when there were only very few hits on the Indian scene, Rahman's score for Lagaan topped the charts, selling over 3.5 million copies.
That outdid the year's other big hits like Gadar, which sold 2 million copies and it equalled Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
The music maestro also notched up a record of sorts when the music for Bombay - a bilingual film in Hindi and Tamil - sold a massive 12 million copies in both languages.
In India too, the Bombay Dreams score has turned into a chart-topper, hitting the number one spot for five continuous weeks on MTV India World Chart Express - the list includes top albums from the US and Australia.
And Sony Music, which has the rights to the music, says it has a hit on its hands and has already sold 150,000 copies - despite the fact that it is priced at a premium like other international numbers and is in English.
His parade of hits has turned him into the country's most expensive music director. Industry sources say Rahman demands around Rs 1.5-2 crore (Rs 12-20 million) - and gets it.
In the article Film producers float their own music firms published on 15 April 2003:
So, while 2000's superhit Kaho Na Pyar Hai sold close to one crore copies, a comparatively less successful film like Saathiya sold only around two million copies. According to Taurani, music companies are exercising extreme caution while acquiring music rights since they have burnt their fingers several times.In the article Singing a different tune published on 3 July 2003:
Some years back, Rahman-Shankar's "Indian" cassette sold six lakh units in cassette and CD. Today, Star Music, the audio rights owners of "Boys", has orders for only 60,000 cassettes and CDs! The audio rights of "Boys" had no takers and was finally sold to Star Music at almost one third the price which was given to the combo's previous hit "Muthalvan". Said Poonam Choudhary of Star Music: "In the good old days we would have sold a lakh of cassettes on the first day of a Rahman-Shanker audio release. Today I will consider myself lucky if I can sell the initial 60,000 in a month's time. A few hours after the "Boys" audio (Rs. 45) hit the market, pirated audios of the film were available for Rs. 15!"
"Yes, there has been a steep fall in the sales graph now compared to what it was two years ago," admits Jaishankar Subramanium of Landmark. Sentiments echoed by S.K. Chowdhury of Music World. "Whenever an A.R. Rahman album ("Jeans", for example) was released in the past, we would sell above 400 cassettes a week. But "Boys", the hottest selling album today, has sold just over 200 pieces in the same time span," says Chowdhury.
In the article Sivaji audio – first week report – with statistics published on 11 April 2007:
AVM CEO Mr. S.C.Babu while talking to Behindwoods correspondent in the US, revealed that the audio of Sivaji which opened up on April 2nd is seeing one of biggest sales of recent times. There was a pre-order of about 105,000 CDs and 90,000 cassettes, before the release. Repeat orders were received even by the close of the first day and many retail outlets reported stock outs. As on date, the total CD sales has notched up to about 140,000 and cassettes have touched 108,000. Orders are continuing to come in from all parts of Tamilnadu. On the overseas front, the sales of CDs in Malaysia and Singapore are reportedly setting new records.In the article Digital music sales up, but labels continue making CDs to publicise films published on 11 November 2011:
At the time of the audio launch of Mudhalvan, boasting the potent combo of Shankar and A R Rahman, Five Star Audio, the label that bagged the rights, had a confirmed order for three lakh cassettes on day one. The year was 1999. Cut to a decade later, to the time of the audio launch of Endhiran, featuring the same director-composer combo and also Superstar Rajinikanth, in 2010. The number of CDs produced was 25,000.
Tamil Audio SalesAudio labels are seeing decreased physical sales but continue to release film music on CDs. The ratio of digital to physical sales for film music, industry insiders say, is 70:30 and veering towards 80:20.
Roja - 200,000 units
Gentleman - 300,000 units
Indian - 600,000 units
Mudhalvan - 300,000 units
Boys - 60,000 units
Sivaji - 248,000 units
Endhiran - 25,000 units
Hindi Audio Sales
Lagaan - 3,500,00 units
Saathiya - 2,000,000 units
Tamil/Hindi Audio Sales
Bombay - 12,000,000 units
Telugu Audio Sales
Komaram Puli - 300,000 units to 760,000 units
International Audio Sales (India)
Bombay Dreams - 150,000 units
Audio Rights
Iruvar - INR 6 million (marketing/promotion INR 497,000) - Pyramid Audio
Lagaan - INR 80 million - Sony Music
Komaram Puli - INR 20 million - Sony Music
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