In May last year, singer KK walked out of an overcrowded concert venue in Kolkata feeling uneasy and hours later, he was dead. Singer Shaan’s concert in December 2022 in Hooghly, West Bengal, saw a stampede-like situation that left many injured. Last month, a bottle was thrown at singer Kailash Kher during his show in Hampi, Karnataka. Most recently, singer Sonu Nigam was manhandled during an attempt for a selfie at his concert in Mumbai. All of these incidents have added to the growing concern of mismanagement and safety, or the lack of it, at live shows.

Instances of mismanagement largely occur when the crowd gets unmanageable, says singer Divya Kumar of Jee Karda (Badlapur, 2015) fame. “Organizers are so keen on doing an event that they forget other issues. They think, ‘Artiste ek baar aa jaaye, baaki hum handle kar lenge’. That leads to mismanagement,” he says, as he goes on to recall a gig of his with composer-singer Amit Trivedi in Prayagraj (UP): “It was a college show. Ground mein maara-maari chal rahi thi. While performing, a bottle was thrown at my co-singer. There was some substance in it, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. We stopped [the concert] immediately. Amit sir was upset, he said we won’t perform.”

“Cheezein toh bahut improve hui hain,” says Kher, adding, “But, the craze for selfies has gripped everyone. People get overexcited, forget their limits and how they should behave. Organizers apne level par achha sambhalte hain, but the crowd goes berserk and security lapse ho jaata hai.” But, the singer admits artistes’ green rooms are “more secluded now”.

Composer-singer Salim Merchant says, “It’s very easy to blame the organizers. The one thing that’s taken for granted is that people attending will be well-behaved. One organizing team can have 100 security persons, but what about the 15,000 who come for the show? In Sonu’s case, the person (wrongdoer) was the organizer of the show. How do you stop this?”

Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya is also of the opinion that when venues tend to get unexpectedly overcrowded, organizers are in a fix despite having security measures in place. “In Mumbai, venues are small. The crowd turnout is at least 10,000, even if the capacity is 5,000. How can anyone control this big a crowd?” he reasons.