Premiere: Shalmali Kholgade and Rajan Batra Craft an Openhearted Duet on ‘Baaki’

Mumbai artists Shalmali Kholgade and Rajan Batra – from pop rock band The Yellow Diary – team up to reflect upon love and all its value on “Baaki,” a Hindi acoustic ballad. Composed together by the artists, Batra wrote lyrics while Kholgade also adds guitars with Roland Fernandes. Together, they tunefully capture a sonic cooldown, perspective-gaining period after a fight between lovers.  

The popstar – who released her album 2X Side B last year – brought out a song she began writing in English under the working title “Down and Up” in 2016, believing she’d found the right collaborator in Batra. “[It had] missing pieces that I hoped someone would fill in with their unique perspective. Rajan stepped in and did just that and more. The way he’s captured a man’s emotions after a dispute with his beloved is nothing short of beautiful. ‘Baaki’ is bound to be one of my most cherished songwriting experiences,” she adds.

Batra echoes the same sentiment about working on “Baaki” being a “very special experience.” He adds in his statement about the release, “Sometimes, you meet people and their energy is so effective that it doesn’t take much time for you to tune into their aura […] sometimes, we find our own emotions in someone’s expression.”

The collaboration came about after they met, hung out and “spoke about life and all things art and heart,” according to Batra. He adds, “[We] played some piano and sang and then suddenly, in all that synergy, she showed me this song she wrote a few years ago about a fight she had with a loved one and how she felt in that moment. I remember hearing the song once and being so much in sync with the emotion that I knew what to say, right away.”

Watch the video for “Baaki” below. Stream the song here.