Unless you’ve been living under a rock or sworn off the internet, chances are you’ve come across Sameeksha Sarkar’s latest track, Udi Udi. The artiste’s stage name, Sarkar, was chosen for a simple reason: it’s what everyone has always called her, and it didn’t hurt that she thought it sounded cool.
Currently ranked 19 on the Billboard India charts and 15 on Spotify India’s Top 50, Udi Udi is an infectious indie-pop fusion blending regional sounds with Afrobeats, created in collaboration with Aneesh and Hruday.
It all began when Aneesh, who had been looking to create a Rajasthani-inspired track, shared a beat he had been working on. What followed was surprisingly effortless. “We sat down, he wrote his part, I wrote mine, and we finished recording that afternoon,” Sarkar says, still sounding amused while recalling what remains the fastest project she’s worked on.
What happened next was something none of them anticipated. “I didn’t think it would become this big a hit,” she says. At first, friends began telling her they were seeing the song all over their social media feeds. Then came the dance trends. But the real surprise was watching people create transition videos specifically around her section of the track. “That was very shocking,” she admits.
Musically inclined from a young age, she was enrolled in Hindustani classical music lessons after her mother realised she could hold a tune. Over time, the 23-year-old Mumbai-based artiste's musical journey expanded beyond singing into songwriting and composition. “I met people doing similar work and thought, ‘Let’s give it a shot,’” she says.
After releasing her first song, Sajan Morey, Sarkar began reaching out to other independent artistes to collaborate. While composition came naturally to her, songwriting was a slower process. “Udi Udi was the first song where I wrote and composed my part entirely on my own.”
One part of the song that particularly resonated with listeners was Sarkar’s reference to brown skin. “I remember telling Aneesh that because his song Anyayo mentions gori kanyari (fair maiden), I was going to write saanwari surat (darker complexion) into my lyrics,” she says. The line struck a chord with audiences, many of whom embraced its celebration of brown skin in a culture where lighter complexions are often seen as the standard.
Before long, social media was awash with videos and trends built around that section of the song, turning lyrics into a moment of representation. Although her music is rooted in Hindustani classical, Sarkar is keen on exploring other genres. While an EP is on the horizon, her current focus is on experimentation and releasing music across different genres.
“All of the songs that are currently unreleased are very different from eachother,” she says. “It’s a work in progress.”
As she speaks about learning on the job and taking everything in as it happens, there is a refreshing openness in her journey. Udi Udi may have introduced her to a much larger audience, but for Sarkar, it feels less like a destination and more like the beginning of something bigger.
Udi Udi is now streaming on all major music platforms.