On a quiet fire-exit floor in a college hostel in Bhubaneswar, three engineering students once spent their nights talking, about life, frustration, love, and everything they didn’t yet have words for. Those conversations would slowly turn into melodies, then into songs, and eventually into Khatth, one of the most closely watched independent bands to emerge from India in recent years.
Formed in 2019 by Aditya Atmakuri, Ashutosh Verma, and Satyam Nayak, Khatth’s journey has never been about a single turning point. Instead, it has been shaped by shared time, emotional patience, and the slow confidence that comes from growing up, both as people and as artistes.
That quiet persistence paid off in 2025, when the band released Woh, a disco-inspired pop track that became their breakout moment. Built around a groovy bassline, shimmering retro textures, and an infectious melody, the song captured something rare: intimacy that felt celebratory rather than loud.
Yet for Khatth, the song’s success was not just about numbers. It was validation, of years spent waiting for the right moment to tell certain stories.
If Woh was the band’s most public-facing triumph, Bewaqt, released a few days back, is its emotional counterpoint. A melancholic, introspective track, Bewaqt explores longing, parting, and the quiet ache of unfulfilled love. Set in the metaphor of a restless, untimely evening, the song lingers in the “in-between” moments, where heartbreak fills silence, and love and loss exist side by side.
“The idea of Bewaqt had been with us for a long time,” the band shares. “Parts of it were written years ago, but we always felt we needed to grow, emotionally and musically - before we could do justice to something this delicate.”
That sense of waiting defines the song. Bewaqt does not rush grief or healing. Instead, it sits patiently between sadness and hope, refusing to choose one over the other. Healing, for Khatth, is not about erasing memory but learning how to live with it, making peace with what was.
Directed by Smriti Thakur, the accompanying music video deepens this emotional terrain. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Ida Ali: daughter of filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, the film mirrors the song’s restraint and tenderness. It is visually understated yet emotionally expansive, reaffirming a style of Khatth’s art: their commitment to cinematic music-video storytelling.
From the beginning, visuals have been central to the band’s identity. Each music video exists in its own distinct world, carefully conceptualised to complement the song’s mood rather than simply illustrate it. This emphasis on storytelling has helped Khatth carve a space for themselves as artistes who think beyond sound, who treat music as a multisensory experience.
The emotional weight of Bewaqt is also rooted in circumstance. The song was recorded during a brief five-day window when the band reunited, knowing they would soon be pulled in different directions, different countries, different lives. Multiple songs emerged from those sessions, including Woh and an unreleased track, created amid tangled cables, exhaustion, and a chaos the band has come to cherish.
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