Meet the woman who stepped into the male-dominated music label industry and nailed it - Taranpreet Kaur Mehndi of DRecords International

Daler Mehndi might be a pop icon but the woman who helped him become the star that he is, is Taranpreet Kaur Mehndi, Founder and CEO of DRecords International, and his wife.

One of the first movers in the music record label industry, Taran has been in the business of managing music artists, including Daler Mehndi, for over two decades now. Taran met Daler in 1994 when she organised his first public performance with over 10,000 spectators. After managing Daler Mehndi for close to two decades, she married him in 2013.

In a candid conversation with HerStory about her work, selecting artists, her interests, and the highlights of her career, Taran reveals all about her love for music and how her entry into the entertainment industry was serendipitous. 

From an architect to owning a music label

“I studied to become an architect, but music was always my calling. I didn’t really get the time to process my journey in music as it just happened to me. By the time I finished college, I had already started an event management company by the name of Avalanche in the early 90s much before I even met Daler ji. In fact, his first public event with over 10,000 people was organised by me in Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi in 1994. So, the music label happened as a natural progression with DRecords,” she tells HerStory.

In the 90s, women’s representation was lacking in the music industry in segments other than singing. How did she find a foothold?

“It was a very male-dominated and unstructured industry. Back then, we had cassettes and CDs, and we had distributors, dealers, and retailers. So, I’ve done everything possible including going to check the weightage of the plastic, and for people to see a woman walk in and negotiate rates was a big trouble. It was difficult for me as well, as it was a hardcore man’s world back then. While it was a journey full of hard work, it was equally fulfilling too,” she reveals.

Connecting with artists

As a producer in the music industry, Taran emphasises on the need to have a selection process for artists, as music labels bet high on them. She says DRecords for her is a label “for the people, by the people and of the people”. 

“We don’t create music only for commercial gains, where we launch one album every week. My heart needs to connect with the artist for DRecords to take them on,” Taran says, as she shares the story of discovering a 60-year-old talent who is now on Indian Idol.

“Sugan Devi Gandharv from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur never imagined she would be singing for an album. It was WE who reached out to her after coming across her in a Facebook post. I felt deeply connected to her voice and decided to get her onboard with us. My team thought it was a disastrous move, but I went ahead with it anyway. She’s now singing on Indian Idol and we’re supporting her there. We also launched an album with her called Duma Dum Mast Kalandar this year,” Taran says.

She believes that everything she has done solitarily has been with women artists. 

Songs on mental health

While Taran has been backing artists including Daler Mehndi and Mika Singh for decades now, it is her passion for music that fails to die down. One of her latest passion projects is creating music around mental health. She recently composed the song for her first music video around mental health for the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“During the lockdown, a lot had changed globally, and we were all at home at the same time. I had so much time to think as work wasn’t happening at the pace I was used to. This work with WHO happened to come my way and I did the scripting for a video for them. I, along with my daughter, sang in the video,” says Taran.

She composed and authored a mental health song for WHO and curated a 21-day oneness consciousness course with Voyce.

“I also did other songs around mental health as it has always been such a huge influence in my personal life. I always wanted to study psychology but just to prove a point to my father I went ahead and graduated in architecture. I have a strong belief that the mind has the power to move things,” says Taran.

During the pandemic, Taran Mehndi debuted as a film director with Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu casting 13 characters aged 7 to 76 facing the camera for the first time on International Women’s Day.