AKSHATH WON'T LET HIMSELF BECOME A ONE-HIT WONDER

The rising star behind the viral hit 'Nadaaniyan' is making sure he doesn't lose momentum

- SHAMANI JOSHI

Like many who picked engineering simply by default, Akshath Acharya jokes (almost proudly) that he knew less in his final year than he did on day one. What studying to be an engineer did teach him, though, was the art of jugaad—that uniquely Indian knack for finding quick solutions with limited resources. So when the pandemic hit and his classes shifted online, the budding singer chose instead to spend hours and hours figuring out music production, mixing, and mastering via YouTube tutorials. And thank God for that, because without it, he probably wouldn't have gone on to make one of the most viral hits of 2024.

Last year, Akshath had the whole country humming along to "Nadaaniyan," a tender pop ballad that swoons over the quirks, sweet nothings, and wide-eyed innocence of young love. The song, which stuck to a relatively simple, no-frills production style, topped Spotify's Global Viral chart, racked up over 147 million streams on YouTube, and even got over 2 million Instagram users to lip-sync its lyrics. More importantly, it gave Akshath the confidence to believe this is what he was meant to do.

“I'VE REALIZED THAT ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS IS WHETHER YOUR FINAL PRODUCT DELIVERS THE EMOTION YOU WANTED IT TO AND EVERYTHING AROUND IT SERVES THAT ONE THING."