At the first listen of Aankhon, chances are you’ll do a double take. After all, the gentle melody is nothing like the songs belted out by singer Dhvani Bhanushali so far. Collaborating with OAFF, Savera, and lyricist Ankur Tewari, she has crafted a number that blends emotional depth with an experimental edge. “I think I got slightly cooler with this song,” Bhanushali says with a smile, admitting that Aankhon marks a shift in her music.

“I went niche with it, and for once, I didn’t seek too many opinions. I just loved it and wanted to put it out. So, I did.”

Aankhon, she reveals, is one of the two songs the musicians made together in 2024. “This one sounded fresh. We felt like writing about how we make different connections throughout life; Ankur started penning the lyrics, and the structure just kept forming. As soon as we heard the final version, we related to it immediately. There was something [novel] in the sound — a space I hadn’t explored before,” she recalls.

However, the song was on the backburner throughout last year. Bhanushali eventually felt that it was the right piece to launch in 2025. “I dropped the audio recently and released a visualizer as well. It’s quite a cool concept, experimental for me. Let’s see how people respond,” she smiles.

In her seven-year career so far, the singer has straddled film music and her originals with ease. If she is the voice behind Bollywood chartbusters like Dilbar (Satyameva Jayate, 2018) and Duniya (Luka Chuppi, 2019), she has also belted out popular singles like Vaaste and Leja Re. Does the growing influence of social media, where tracks go viral for their hooks, affect her creative process and approach to music? “A song is made like a song,” she responds, after some thought.

“Subconsciously, yes, the pressure is there. But no one can predict which part of a song will go viral. We follow the organic process, where there is a chorus, verse, and bridge. While some music might be made with Instagram in mind, I don’t think we consciously do that. But we’ve seen so many reels that maybe something gets embedded in our minds. Not every song needs to go viral, some just need to be heard.”

Bhanushali, whose live performances and fan interactions have played a big part in her rise, believes she has evolved with her experiences. The journey so far has left her with valuable lessons. “One of the biggest learnings is detaching from the obsession with views and traction. As a musician, you need to separate yourself from that. Otherwise, it becomes too much about business. During the creation process, it’s important to set that aside; it’s difficult, but necessary.”

For anyone who has been active on Instagram recently, the last few weeks have been owned by the songs of this month’s Amazon Prime release, Gehraiyaan. The title track and Doobey have made it to every second Reel. Interestingly, not Bollywood daddies, but an indie Mumbai-based composer-producer is behind it. “I got a message on Instagram from Shakun Batra [Gehraiyaan director],” recalls Kabeer Kathpalia aka OAFF. Batra said he had heard and liked his and partner Savera Mehta’s work.

This pair isn’t alone. Singer-songwriter Maalavika Manoj aka Mali, who divides her time between Chennai and Mumbai, has sung Maange Manzooriyan, a track in the upcoming Bhumi Pednekar and Rajjkumar Rao-starrer Badhaai Do.

Manoj landed the opportunity through music director Khamosh Shah with whom she had collaborated on an advertisement. “He called me during the lockdown saying that he was working on a film for which he wanted to pitch my voice,” she recalls. “For them to take a chance on someone new is actually quite refreshing,” she thinks. Manoj, who writes the lyrics to her songs, says it was novel to just turn up and sing.

Delhi-based singer-songwriter Kamakshi Khanna was on the vocals for Chhan Chhan Chhan from Kaun Banegi Shikarwati, Zee5’s latest series. Khanna has been part of the song Tere Jaisa from Kota Factory Season 2, but for Kolkata-based pop duo Parekh & Singh (Nischay Parekh, Jivraj Singh), it was their first brush with Bollywood when they came on board as composer-producer for the song. “Our entry point was through social media,” says Nischay Parekh. “We have been making music for a while and Ananya Banerjee [the lyricist] was a fan.”  

While it seems that social media is the new place for musicians to get noticed, Manoj thinks the scene is crowded, cutting down your chances. “You have to know how to do things differently, tag the right people and be consistent if you wish to earn the attention of producers over time. Luck also plays a part.”

Parekh agrees that the bubbles in which Bollywood and indie music once existed have popped, and a healthy osmosis is underway. “We have been making the music we want to make, and Bollywood is now approaching us from a perspective that says that they like what we do artistically, instead of trying to change what we do.”

With Chhan Chhan Chhan, Parekh & Singh got to experiment since the show is set in Rajasthan. This required that they explore Indian instrumentation, something they say they wouldn’t do for the Parekh & Singh sound. “In independent music, we are usually asking ourselves all the questions and we don’t have genre limits to expand our horizon. So, it is nice to get somebody else into the picture to challenge our creative process.”

The big learning, he says, has been that, it’s important to edit your work. Khanna agrees. “There is no such thing as the final version that we can control. What actually ends up playing on screen is what’s final, and this has meant that we learn how to detach themselves from their work.”