The story of Coldplay’s enduring affection for India

Coldplay will hold their third show in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday (January 21), before performing at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on January 25 and 26.

We are so happy and grateful to be here in India 🩷🩷 pic.twitter.com/P0Hx20y8xB

— Coldplay (@coldplay) January 16, 2025

Coldplay are a British pop-rock band founded in 1997. The band comprises vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey.

They are among the most acclaimed live acts of the present era, and one of the most commercially successful artists of all time.

The band – and especially singer-songwriter Chris Martin – have embraced Indian culture like very few other international acts of their stature.

When and how did the band’s association with India begin?

Coldplay’s public association with India began in 2015, when Chris Martin visited New Delhi. He came as a representative of The Global Poverty Project, better known as Global Citizen, an international NGO that seeks to end extreme poverty.

Martin met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, India’s flagship countrywide sanitation program. He also participated in a charity event organised by the international nonprofit Oxfam in the capital.

At the time, Martin had just been appointed curator of the Global Citizen Festival (GCF), a charity music fest that attracts some of the biggest artists in the world, for the next 15 years. At his meeting with Modi, Martin secured the Prime Minister’s support for holding the 2016 GCF in Mumbai.

And how did the GCF go?

The list of top-tier international artists who have performed in India is tiny even today – back in 2016, it was almost non-existent. The GCF was, therefore, a huge deal, and attracted fans from around the country.

India, thank you for one of the greatest nights of our lives @arrahman #MaaTujheSalaam #GlobalCitizenIndia @glblctznIN pic.twitter.com/RAYEUKKT4p

— Coldplay (@coldplay) November 19, 2016

The show on November 19, 2016, was headlined by Coldplay.

Superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, musicians A R Rahman, Arijit Singh, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, and singer-actor Monali Thakur took the stage alongside international superstars such as rapper Jay-Z and singer-songwriter Demi Lovato.

Prime Minister Modi made a brief virtual appearance.

The show was a massive hit, and Coldplay’s performance was universally lauded. Martin wowed the 80,000-odd fans at the MMRDA grounds with his Hindi. Coldplay also treated fans with a brief rendition of Arijit Singh’s hit song ‘Channa Mereya’.

The show ended with Martin waving the Indian tricolour after singing ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ with Rahman.

So how did Coldplay’s Indian connection go international?

Between Martin’s meeting with PM Modi in July 2015 and the GCF performance in November 2016, Coldplay made another visit to India. This was arguably their most important, and definitely the most influential visit to India so far.

In October 2015, Coldplay shot the music video for their hit single ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ in Mumbai. (Small parts of the video were also shot in Kolkata). The video, featuring pop superstar Beyoncé and actor Sonam Kapoor, is the band’s most-viewed upload on YouTube, with more than 2.1 billion views as of January 2025.

The video was shot mostly in Worli village and Vasai Fort in Mumbai. It was hailed for its artistry, and director Ben Mor’s use of slow motion and incredibly dense, colourful frames was widely appreciated.

Not everyone was a fan, though. A report by CNN pointed to “frustration on social media” about the “amalgamation of clichés” about India, “from a peacock to temples to a fire eater, holy men and dancing girls”.

A column published in The Guardian criticised “the western gaze” for obscuring the “realities of a complex nation in favour of reductive tropes originally intended to preserve western hegemony”.

How has the bond endured the years since the video was released?

‘Hymn for the Weekend’ became a massive international hit after it was released in January 2016, alongside the video shot in India. For perhaps the first time since the Beatles did psychedelics on the banks of the Ganga in Rishikesh, a big global band seemed to care about India.

Although this would be the last time Martin and Co would visit India until January 2025, ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ and the subsequent GCF performance garnered Coldplay millions of new fans in the subcontinent while also leaving a lasting imprint on the band itself.

Starting from 2016, Coldplay’s kick drum — the big drum facing the audience, often bearing the band’s name or logo — has borne Coldplay’s name in the Devanagari script. So have some of the amplifiers that the band uses in live performances. This trend most notably started with Coldplay’s massive Super Bowl 50 halftime show in 2016, which also featured Beyoncé and Bruno Mars.

During a 2016 interview with CNN News18, Chris Martin described India as a microcosm for the whole world. He said, “India makes me feel alive in the strongest possible sense. Everything in the wider world is also reflected here. Some of the same troubles and many of the same triumphs.”