Stories, careers and news from India’s independent creative economy.
Aditya Modak’s path links riyaz, a day job, teaching and a film role—without treating any one of them as a shortcut to the other.
NOV 14, 2026 · 9 MIN READ
Siegen Moopanar discovered hip-hop through a daily 6pm ritual watching VH1's Hustle, memorized Eminem lyrics before he wrote his own, and built a decade-long career on a simple refusal: no gimmicks, no scripted persona, just real things people have actually said. His biggest career moment wasn't a chart placement — it was his mother in the crowd at GullyFest 2024.
Jaiveer Singh and Mihir Chauhan started out playing jammy post-punk in a college band. As Baalti, they've spent the years since digging through Bengali disco records, Hindustani classical tape, and Gujarati folk source material, chopping it into bass-heavy dance music nobody else in India's electronic scene was making. A Rolling Stone India Future 25 placement, a Disclosure support slot, and a collaborative LP with Lapgan later, the bucket-named duo is still digging.
Mary Ann Alexander grew up watching her father record in a Malayalam film studio, wrote her first song at 15 almost by accident, and built a reputation for teasing unreleased music on Instagram before ever dropping it. Now she's working with UK producers, drawing Sid Sriram features, and landed on Rolling Stone India's Future 25 for a sound she calls unmistakably her own.
Sai Abhyankkar grew up the son of two playback singers, taught himself to treat every rejection as fuel, and turned three independent singles into a reputation strong enough to have Suriya's production team calling — after A.R. Rahman. Here's how a 21-year-old became Tamil pop's biggest name almost by accident.
Taaruk Raina thought the dream of making music was too big, so he became an actor instead. Then a character's theme song he wrote on set turned into 'Kho Gaye' — now past 200 million streams — and music stopped being the backup plan. His Instagram bio says it best: happy thoughts, sad songs.
Preeti Singhania moved to Mumbai to become an actor and got rejected. A Dua Lipa concert changed her mind about what she could do instead. As Bombay The Artist, she's since built a sound that fuses Punjabi folk with drum-and-bass, crossed half a million monthly Spotify listeners, and landed on Rolling Stone India's Future 25.
Curated dispatches on festival commissions, day rates, and verified credits across India.