“I had always been fascinated with how I could hear my voice through the landline phones after the call ended. I remember fooling around with the phone and would get a call from my dad, and that meant I was definitely in trouble. Small but yet funny instances like these got me mesmerized with sound and music.

I have always loved listening to my voice. Perhaps that is why I chose to become an RJ at one point in life. Parallelly I began to make my little music and jingles just like any other music enthusiast would do. But I was at a turning point in life where I decided to take up sound engineering seriously. So, I went to Chennai to pursue sound engineering for 6 months. I came back to Hyderabad after the course. It did look like a smart decision on the surface. What intrigued me was that Hyderabad had very few sound engineers when it comes to the music industry so why not give it a shot.

Imagine you wake up, start the system and then start playing. That is how organic music is for me. This whole idea of personal touch is what pushed me to create the “Hyderabadi Anthem”. This city has always given me tremendous love. I came here as a nobody, it gave me my first stage, my first gig and of course, biryani.

The Hyderabadi anthem is just not for the people of Hyderabad but for the artists of our city to celebrate what we are and what we do. I remember, while I was in college, I used to perform at various gigs and there were nights where I did not have money to go back home. This one time I was reluctant to ask for an auto. But I had an auto driver stop near me and ask if I play the guitar. I said yes. He asked me if I sing. I said yes. And later he requested if I could sing few songs which I did. After the mini gig that I played for that anna, he told me to get into the auto and that he would drop me. Since I did not have any money left, I refused and told him I don’t have money so I cannot get into the auto. All he said was “I told you I will drop you, I never said I will charge you for the trip”. In a very weird way, every time I fell and lost hope in life, there has always been somebody out there who has done something randomly sweet for me in this city.

We might not have everything that we wish for but whatever little that we have, we are dildaar in sharing it with others.”