A song of success
By Dharam Pal

RAMESH TAURANI and Kumar Taurani, both brothers have undertaken several music projects and some big films in a short span of time. The story of Taurani brothers began in the parlour of a ground floor shop at Lamington Road, Mumbai. There Ramesh and Kumar Taurani drew up plans to transform their existing cassette distribution business into a nation-wide entertainment industry.

Their company, Tips, established in 1981 has, over the years grown into a premier music company. The two brothers started Tips with basic records of Marathi music, introducing new talent. Later, they diversified into other regional languages, and finally into Hindi film and non-film music.

Over the years Tips has brought out cassettes of all-time music hits like Patthar Ke Phool, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee, Phool Aur Kaante, Khalnayak, Khuda Gawah, Andaz Apana Apna, Hum Hein Kamaal Ke, Anari , Rang, Yalgaar, Sanam, Coolie No 1, Raja, Barsaat and others.

Film music apart, Tips has also captured the myriad moods of Indian music. The rustic touch of rural India in its folk songs, the sanctity of Indian spiritualism in Bhajans and Shlokas, the heritage of the Rajputs and Moghuls and their contribution to classical music, the laurels of poets and bards in the form of ghazals and nazms etc.

Renowned singers and musicians such as Lata Mangeshkar, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Villayat Khan and Ustad Bissmillah Khan have all had their genius captured on Tips cassettes and compact discs. Tips today has repertoire in excess of 3500 albums. Govinda-Urmila starrer Kunwara and Salman-Preeti Zinta starrer "Friends" are Tips’ forthcoming movies. It also has music rights of Indra Kumar’s Mann and Subhash Ghai’s Taal.

Much of Tips’ success is credited to the strong marketing acumen to Taurani brothers. They were the first to use hoardings, banners and wall posters. They also introduced the system of sample songs of cassettes. They were also the pioneers in airing musical trailers of forthcoming releases.

Tips realised the importance of speedy distribution at the conceptual stage. Today Tips has distributors all over India. Tips also has distribution offices and licenses in USA, UK and Dubai, to take care of its overseas operations.

As the global market grew, Tips increased its production capacity at its duplicating plant at Palghar, Maharashtra. It set up another digital duplicating plant at Silvassa.

As business is spreading, Tips is gearing up to strengthen its infrastructure. Plans are being made to start a CD manufacturing plant and an audio recording studio.