Universal Music and Excel execs. Photo Credit: Excel Entertainment
Universal Music Group (UMG) has kicked off 2026 with another high-profile Bollywood deal, this time by taking a 30% stake in Mumbai-based film company Excel Entertainment.
Regional publications including the Economic Times just recently shed light on the investment, which Universal Music India and Excel itself subsequently confirmed.
Founded in 1999 and working towards “placing India on the global map of international cinema,” Excel has released a number of feature films, streaming exclusives (multiple having landed on Prime Video), and television shows.
And given Bollywood soundtracks’ sizable consumption share in India – on top of their quick-increasing streaming performance on the world stage – Excel therefore has a significant presence in music.
Enter the newly finalized deal with Universal Music, which has purchased 30% of Excel at a reported overall valuation of ₹2,400 crore (currently $266 million). Besides maintaining majority ownership, the film house will retain creative control, the involved parties spelled out.
On Excel’s end, CEO Vishal Ramchandani emphasized a broader objective of transforming his company “into a creative global studio” and bringing “original content to audiences across platforms and geographies.”
The major label’s promotional sway and distribution capabilities will certainly prove useful here in light of the Indian market’s film-music overlap. Furthermore, UMG – which is adding Universal Music India chair and CEO Devraj Sanyal to Excel’s board – has materially deepened its domestic entertainment-space reach with the pact.
(It was only in August 2025 that Universal Music India partnered with a different Bollywood studio, Maddock Films, as well as the company’s Mad for Mussic label.)
“Today’s announcement further strengthens UMG’s position in India, a dynamic and strategically important music market for the group globally,” Adam Granite, UMG’s CEO for MENA and Asia, added in part. “Original soundtracks remain at the heart of India’s fast-growing music market, with Indian listeners showing a growing desire to access more music in that genre.”
In the bigger picture, the multimillion-dollar investment is the latest in a line of long-term bets on the Indian music industry, and key players are evidently unbothered by immediate monetization challenges.
(A related side note: Spotify upped its India pricing in August 2025 before overhauling its subscription plans in November.)
The aforementioned ability to monetize Indian music internationally is consequently worth keeping in mind – as is the adjacent opportunity to develop homegrown talent. Warner Music in November hammered out a distribution deal with Ultra Music before wrapping 2025 by partnering with Mumbai’s Rthyms.Life, which aims “to take every artist from local story to global stage.”
Additionally, Hybe is looking to expand its K-pop idol format to India; Universal Music has hit the ground running in this area via its JV with Savan Kotecha’s Visva Records.
Visva’s “greatest Indian boy band,” OutStation, dropped its debut single in November and is apparently striking the right chords from the all-important superfan perspective.
“I actually listened to this music more than 50+ times idk, but this song has emotion, and it attach my heart, this song becomes my fav song ty soo much 😄😝 hope this comment get like by outstation,” one early diehard commented on the single’s YouTube upload.
“I’m soo excited to say it in the future that I was here from the beginning,” another passionate listener wrote.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.digitalmusicnews.com ’
