‘Nadaaniyan’ to ‘Tu Hai Kya’: Akshath Acharya’s rise as India’s indie music star and Internet sensation

Acharya recently made a song for people “who always have the right thing to say at the right time”: Tu Hai Kya? “Whenever you’re facing a problem, there is that one person you go to, who always knows what to say. There’s no song for such people,” the Mumbai-based singer says in his Instagram reel. And the comments section? Flooded with people tagging that ‘one’ person in their lives.

In an interview with indianexpress.com, the singer opened up about his latest release, fame after “Nadaaniyan”—which now has a duo version with Jonita Gandhi—and more. Speaking about “Tu Hai Kya”, Acharya said, “I’m not a very expressive person. But then there are a few people in front of whom I can openly cry, complain, and laugh. I can openly admit that I’m scared or I’m anxious, whatever it is. And whatever I share with them, they’ll be receptive. They’ll help me get through it. So this is a song that I’ve written for such people because I feel like in everyone’s life, you might have one or two people like that.”

Before “Tu Hai Kya” took over, Acharya had captured hearts with “Nadaaniyan”, a track that became an earworm for Instagram users everywhere. “Kaise tu gungunaye, muskuraye…” still pops up on feeds, continuing to be a favourite. The song quickly climbed the charts, landing on the Top 10 Viral Songs India list earlier this year. Interestingly, “Nadaaniyan” wasn’t even a fully formed song when it first made its mark—it was more like a random reel video that captured attention and left listeners wanting more.

“It all began with this particular guitar hook that I had written, and it was just this four-chord strumming kind of a thing that I was fingerpicking. It just occurred to me that there is potential to write a nice composition over this. After a lot of trial and error, I ended up writing the hook of the song from the “Kaise tu gun gunaye” all the way to “Nadaaniyan”. So that’s 20-30 seconds,” Acharya said.

But it did not come easy to Acharya. The Instagram algorithm knows no friends, and before “Nadaaniyan”, he had created several songs that went unnoticed. “I feel like on the outside, it looks like it’s a one-song overnight kind of a thing. But it does take time to create something that can be lasting and that’s still in the works right now. So luckily, I’ve had a bank of songs before “Nadaaniyan” was released. When people discovered me through the song, they also had these other songs of mine to go through and then figure out, which helped in kind of conversion from being a “Nadaaniyan” fan to turning into my audience,” he said.

Bollywood is increasingly relying on independent singers. The crossover of independent artists into film soundtracks is a win-win scenario. Independent music and its fusion with Bollywood is a trend that seems set to grow in the years ahead. Artists like Madhubanti Bagchi, who sung the viral “Aaj Ki Raat” for Stree 2, Yashika Sikka, who got her big Bollywood hit with “Tu Kya Jaane” for Amar Singh Chamkila, and more established themselves in the ‘industry’ with their Bollywood break.

However, for Acharya, a Bollywood project is not necessary to make a name for oneself in the music industry. “It can be helpful, but I don’t think it’s necessary. There are plenty of artists who are doing well on their own without having been in Bollywood yet. I feel like for any independent artist who is releasing their own music and is doing so passionately, they would love to be in Bollywood, but their ideal scenario would be that their music, under their own name, made in the way they would make their music, gets placed in a Bollywood film versus doing playback,” the singer said.

“Just because when you’re an independent artist, that’s what you care about the most, that your music and the way you do it shines through. I feel like this distinction between Bollywood is mainstream and independent music is not yet mainstream, is going to vanish soon, where both are going to be on equal standing,” he added.