Mirzapur becomes first Bollywood film to launch album on premium-first model

MUMBAI: Mirzapur has spent three seasons turning gangland Uttar Pradesh into must-watch television and its characters into genuine pop-culture icons. Now, as the franchise finally makes its long-awaited leap to the big screen with Mirzapur: The Movie, it is rewriting the rulebook on something far less glamorous but arguably more consequential, how Bollywood releases its music.

The complete soundtrack has launched under Excel Music, Excel Entertainment’s newly minted music label, as part of Universal Music India’s Hear It First initiative. Under the scheme, new releases go exclusively to premium subscribers across streaming platforms for an initial window before opening up to everyone on ad-supported tiers. Mirzapur: The Movie is the first Bollywood film album ever to adopt the model, a small but symbolically loaded first in an industry that has traditionally treated day-one, everywhere access as gospel.

Vishal Ramchandani, chief executive of Excel Entertainment, framed the move as bigger than just one album, arguing that building a stronger paid music ecosystem matters for the long-term growth of the Indian music industry. He said Hear It First gives fans another reason to subscribe while creating greater value for artists, labels and the wider ecosystem, and that as Excel Music takes shape, the company wants to be at the forefront of initiatives that help the industry grow and strengthen, calling Mirzapur’s role as the first Bollywood album to take this step a source of genuine excitement.

The strategic logic is straightforward once you sit with it. India’s streaming economy has long struggled to convert free listeners into paying subscribers, and dangling genuine early access to a marquee release is a far more persuasive lever than another discount coupon. By making paying subscribers wait less rather than everyone wait more, Universal Music India is betting that exclusivity, even a temporary one, can do what price cuts alone have not.

The film itself carries plenty of weight to make the experiment worth watching. Produced by Excel Entertainment and releasing in cinemas on 4th September 2026, Mirzapur: The Movie reassembles its beloved cast, including Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Rasika Dugal, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Abhishek Banerjee, while expanding the universe with new additions Jitendra Kumar and Ravi Kishan, both of whom arrive with substantial fan followings of their own.

Taken together, the moment is a neat encapsulation of where Indian entertainment is heading, franchises built on streaming loyalty are now testing whether that same loyalty can be monetized on the music side too, and Mirzapur, fittingly, is the guinea pig for a shift the rest of the industry will be watching closely.