Abraxas performing at Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2015 at Blue Frog. Photo: Himanshu Rohilla
Blue Frog, once India’s most exciting music venue of the 2010s, is relaunching at a new venue in Ballard Estate in South Mumbai in early 2026, founder Mahesh Mathai has confirmed to Rolling Stone India.
While Blue Frog had filed for bankruptcy in 2020, Mathai revived the company in 2024 and is now joined by entrepreneurs Suresh Bhojwani (vocalist and guitarist of erstwhile Indian band The Jets from the Sixties) and Karan Bhojwani as well as veteran music programmer and electronic artist Jehan Johar.
In an earlier interview with The Indian Express, Mathai said the venue will be part of the international cruise terminal in Ballard Pier.
Started in 2007 in Mathuradas Mills Compound in Lower Parel, Blue Frog was a venue, recording studio, label, and artist management company, steadily becoming a coveted stage for Indian independent music as well as international artists. Founded by Mathai, music composers Ashutosh Phatak and Dhruv Ghanekar, entrepreneur Simran Mulchandani, and film producer Srila Chatterjee, Blue Frog expanded to cities like New Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru in subsequent years, before closing down in 2016.
In the decade that it was active, artists performing at Blue Frog in Mumbai ranged from American rock band Mutemath to EDM ace Armin van Buuren, psytrance pioneers Infected Mushroom, India’s seminal acts like Indian Ocean, Soulmate, Jalebee Cartel and more also performed. Blue Frog also played host to icons like Biddu, Nitin Sawhney, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and several others.
Mathai says the reason they decided to relaunch Blue Frog was due to the incredible demand he saw for live music, especially with the international concert circuit. “When we started Blue Frog, if you had told me that Coldplay would have six concerts in India and U2 would be playing and people are going to buy tickets at these kinds of prices, I would have said, ‘No chance.’ That Lollapalooza will have year-on-year festivals that are getting bigger… I wouldn’t have believed it. It’s the living proof that there are people who are waiting to listen to live international music.”
Blue Frog was also a key launchpad for Indian artists across genres, from pop artists like Nikhil D’Souza and Shalmali Kholgade to metal bands like Pangea and Providence, and independent acts The Lightyears Explode, Advaita, Sky Rabbit, Paradigm Shift, and more. The venue also played host to the Rolling Stone Metal Awards during its heyday, for six editions between 2010 and 2015. Mathai says, “A lot of the platforming of talent we did in 2007-2008 has gone on to become pretty big musicians and bands. We’ll be the pathway again to discovery and the pathway to bigger stuff.”
The announcement comes at a time when another iconic Indian live music venue, The Humming Tree, is also gearing up for a relaunch in December, signalling the renewed appetite for local venues that support the fast-growing independent music scene.
The announcement comes as another iconic Indian live music venue, The Humming Tree, prepares for its relaunch in December after a six-year hiatus. It’s likely a sign of the renewed appetite for local spaces supporting the country’s fast-growing independent music scene.
When the doors will open once again, Mathai says there will be “little differences” in their programming. “We would have evolved with our programming. It’s going to be different, but largely the same too. Our intent and looking at platforming quality music will always be there. The big thing is finding new talent, which is something we did 20 years ago and we’re going to do now, and there’s just a lot more talent now,” he says.
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