From the beginning, I knew I wanted to create something that sounded different — a high-energy party track — but one that did not sound like anything already out there. Working with Shilpa Rao, Aarvan and W.I.S.H on this was a fantastic experience. The energy in that collaboration was something else. The tracks from the first Cocktail had a very specific sound that lives in people’s memories, so the pressure was real. We wanted to bring our own energy to it. The response has been incredible and honestly it tells you that audiences are ready for something fresh as long as it makes them feel something.

T-Series Mixtape is a project which is very close to me and has always been a very challenging and fulfilling experience. The song selection is everything. You have to find classic songs that have an emotional core strong enough to survive reimagination. Then it is about pairing the right voices with the right material. Chemistry between artistes in a live format cannot be manufactured. The arrangement has to honour the original while giving it a fresh energy. Too much change and you lose what people love. Too little and it feels like a cover. And the live recording format is unforgiving. There is no hiding behind production fixes. The performance has to be real and that is actually what makes Mixtape special.

Earlier, the focus was very much on scale. Big sounds, big moments, music that could fill a cinema. Today, the context has changed. People are hearing your music first on their phones, on earphones, on reels. So, the intimacy of a production matters just as much as the scale. My philosophy has shifted towards making music that works in both spaces. That hits in a theatre but also connects when someone is listening alone at midnight. The craft has not changed but the awareness of where and how music is consumed has made me think very differently about every production decision.

I am also deeply curious about the intersection of Indian classical structures and contemporary electronic production. Not in the fusion way that has been done before but something that feels genuinely new. There are so many classical Indian instruments that are almost extinct now, such as the mohan veena, esraj and jal tarang — we barely get to hear these instruments in mainstream music. I would want to reintroduce the world to all the classical Indian instruments with a contemporary sound. I would love to do a project that is rooted in one specific musical tradition but produced for a global audience. That challenge excites me a lot.