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Female indie musicians reveal instances of facing bias and harassment
Updated On: 07 September, 2025 12:21 PM IST | Mumbai | Tanisha Banerjee
Why don’t we see more female indie musicians on a festival line-up? It’s not because there aren’t enough of them, but because there exists an inherent bias and systemic harassment that causes many of them to back off, or even quit the industry. They tell us their story
“People are more open to hear a man make experimental music than women,” says Soniya Pondcar. PIC/SATEJ SHINDE
When indie musician Heeya Tikku (@heeyaatikku6) recently shared screenshots on Instagram, the message was as ugly as it was familiar. An organiser on Instagram had been pointlessly disrespectful, reducing her identity to gender alone. “You are a woman and a nobody, so do not show me your attitude because you’re just a woman who won’t end up anywhere,” he wrote, unprovoked, entitled, and unashamed.
What is worse is that for many women in India’s independent music scene, this isn’t shocking, but a norm. The question that lingers then is: what does a woman have to endure to make music for a living? For Soniya Pondcar, rap began as a lifeline. At 13, she started writing verses in English, turning low self-esteem and anxiety into rhythm and rhyme. But when she entered inter-college contests, she quickly realised how lonely it was to be a woman in rap. “Most of the time I was the only girl in a rap contest,” she recalls. While men routinely advanced to finals, the farthest she reached was the semi-finals. “I’ve heard from others that they don’t usually choose women in rap contests.”
Later, when she looked for producers, the bias deepened. Instead of encouraging her experimental style, they asked her to sing in a “poppier” way, to fit a safer mould of what female performers were expected to sound like. “It is anyways difficult for abstract rap to gain traction in India but I feel like people are more open to hear a man make experimental music as opposed to women.” Frustration eventually pushed her to stop releasing music altogether. Even at gigs, the hostility persisted. Male rappers patronised her with condescending quizzes about hip-hop, making her prove her legitimacy in a space that should have welcomed her talent.
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