Vijay Nair, 

Nair was a 17-year-old college dropout when he decided to manage indie music artistes for a living. A year later (in 2002) he built Only Much Louder with lawyer-bassist Bobby Talwar, producing live shows featuring indie performers. The breakthrough came with the first NH7 Weekender in Pune in 2010; the festival is now synonymous with indie music in India. Look closer and you’ll see OML in every major milestone in India’s independent pop culture—from producing MTV’s breakout music docu-show The Dewarists to Sound Trippin’ to the controversial AIB Roast. “We don’t do commissioned shows. We own the properties. It takes more time to make money like this, but we end up having much more fun,” says Nair. He has expanded revenue streams steadily, with an indie music label, an online music and culture blog, and the hyperlocal events-listing platform Insider.in.