Anurag Saikia and Nikhita Gandhi’s ‘Aaj Kal’ Portrays the Abundance of Love, with a Nadaswaram Drop

For his latest song “Aaj Kal,” composer-producer Anurag Saikia didn’t let any traditional music industry expectations sway him. The Hindi love song, which features vocals by Nikhita Gandhi and lyrics by Avinash Chouhan, had a lyric video that Saikia decided to release around midnight of April 12th, without thinking about best practices for maximum reach on YouTube. “I don’t think so much about streaming and views,” the Assamese artist says.

Nevertheless, “Aaj Kal” – which goes from a typically acoustic ditty to explore electronic beats and finally surprises with a drop that incorporates the punchy bellow of the nadaswaram – has gained over 300,000 streams. The song started with Chouhan – who has worked with Saikia on soundtrack projects for the web series Panchayat, among others – sharing lyrics with the artist. “It had been very long since I’d heard these kinds of lyrics about the freshness of love. It’s very sweet and simple,” Saikia says.

After composing the song, he called Gandhi, with whom he created one of his most popular songs “Aise Kyun” for the series Mismatched along with singer Raghav Chaitanya. He asked if she was interested in working on an independent release that would go up on his YouTube page without much fanfare and Gandhi offered to come down to his studio the same day to check out the song. “She came, she recorded and that was it. It was very smooth and I liked it,” Saikia says. Gandhi is all praise for Saikia’s music and sensibilities, calling her decision to hop on “Aaj Kal” a no-brainer. “I instantly fell in love with the song when I heard it at his studio and we recorded it then and there. In fact, I told him I am used to taking my own sessions so I took my own recording at his system. It was pretty fun!” she says.

In addition to Gandhi’s distinct croon, “Aaj Kal” sets itself apart with Saikia’s use of nadaswaram programmed into the song, something he was bullish about including. He says, “I thought it should have something that may not suit this song, but sounds interesting to us as musicians. So when I showed people the nadaswaram sample, they said, ‘Yeh gaane ke saath nahi jaane wala hain’ (It’s not going to go well with the song). Then I said we should definitely do it!”

Up next, Saikia is working on music he made in Rajasthan recently, plus soundtracks for several web series and films. With his previous solo releases like “Kukuha” and “Kasiyoli,” Saikia says he’s now getting asked to try similar compositions for screen. He adds, “I think that the day I’ll be able to do the kinds of music that I want to do in film or series… it’s already happening. I’m 50 percent there. The day it gets even more, that will be the real success for me as a musician.”

Gandhi, for her part, is working on a single slated to release in June. “I’m also going to be working on an album that I’ve sort of left halfway and incomplete so far. A lot of cool collaborations coming up too!” the artist says.

Watch the lyric video for “Aaj Kal.”