Sachet-Parampara on Their New Song ‘Deewani’ and How Money Won’t Buy an Audience’s Love

There’s a seemingly effortless flow to music duo Sachet-Parampara’s songs, which is perhaps where their allure lays. Singer-composers Sachet Tandon and Parampara Tandon’s latest song “Deewani” is a testament to that as well, honing in on a mix of pop, rock and electronic with Hindi vocals that evoke love in a breezy kind of way.

The wholesomeness is something that’s been heard ever since they came together in 2016 and soon became part of the film soundtrack world from 2017 onwards for Bollywood movies like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Street Dancer 3D and most famously, the Kabir Singh tracks “Bekhayali” and “Mere Sohneya.” They each have over 100 million streams on Spotify. More recently, even their own songs outside of the film space, like “Malang Sajna,” breached past the 100 million streams mark.

In an email interview with Rolling Stone India, the duo answered jointly about their first break via television competition The Voice India in 2015, their live performances and how they’ve turned to content creation as well. Excerpts:

Rolling Stone India: What has it been like seeing the reception for “Deewani”? What did you want to do differently on this song?

Sachet-Parampara: Every time we sit and make a song, we keep changing and working on the melody and lyrics until we get the intuition of it being the best from our end. “Deewani” has been a joyous journey — from creation, to shoot to release and now seeing the world loving it.

How do you treat a project like this that’s outside of the film soundtrack space but still kind of fits into mainstream Indian music, in the way that it could pretty much also fit into a film, right?

Music arrangements can become old but melodies can’t.

What connects with the youth, the masses and in fact, any age group can fit into a single or a film, no matter what. A beautiful song is a beautiful song. We just don’t forget to create a melody that people can connect with. And even down the line after many years, people should still enjoy the song. Because melodies are something that people remember for a lifetime.

How do you look back on your time as part of The Voice India nearly a decade ago? Are highly-televised competitions like that one a really good platform early on for artists? What’s your advice for those who want to take that route, possibly?

One should always believe in themselves, at any stage of life. Reality shows might not be able to give you everything at that point of time, but it can be the beginning of something new. There is only one winner at the end, but one will have to find their own way for their future.

Everything is definitely uncertain in our industry. Staying focused and what you want to deliver and achieve matters the most.

Beyond making music, there’s a real reliability that you show the world through your short-form videos, like on YouTube shorts. How do you ideate those, if at all it’s a process like that? What do you think about the idea of musicians having to become content creators from time to time?

In the present scenario, you just be yourself. And we are doing the same. We are having fun, we like making our audience smile, they should feel happy watching and listening to our work. Our aim is just to spread happiness, be it with our music, or whatever videos we put out on socials.

Actually, one cannot at all replicate someone else’s ideologies or style or what has already happened and has worked for someone else. Every day exploring new things, watching new things, creating the best and what is unique is the new trend.

And what we said above, coming back to music, these content [videos] definitely helps us regenerate ourselves to create new stories, new concepts and new melodies that people can absorb in their lives.

You’re often one of the most prolific performers at various stages, from private gigs to weddings and more. How has it been for you to figure out that side of you as musicians, as stage performers?

The stage is our next home. It’s not a new thing for us. This has always been there. We have been performing on various international stages since childhood.

If Sachet-Parampara had a blank cheque to produce your own live show, what do you think a dream gig would involve?

We’ll be really happy if we get a blank cheque [laughs] but a blank cheque or money can’t buy people’s hearts. Like how two people can’t live a good happy life even if there is enough money. It’s love over money.

Audience toh apne mann se he aati hai..(they come on their own)

Even if we had a blank cheque, we can’t buy audience ka pyaar. Their love is so strong with us that they will turn up in numbers wherever we go.

What else is coming up through 2023?

[Work on] many films and an album is going on. We’ll keep sharing the updates.