Western music is not dependent on their film industry: Ankit Tiwari

Ankit Tiwari who has delivered Bollywood chartbusters such as ‘Sunn raha hai’ (Aashiqui 2; 2013) and ‘Galliyan’ (Ek Villain; 2014), is now coming up with something new for his listeners. He is going to release a series of non-film songs on YouTube, a song every month, consecutively for 12 months. However, he refuses to call them singles and has instead coined a new term.

“I want to call them Originals By Ankit. They are a step towards independent music,” says the vocalist, who is not the only one singing in this series.

The singer-composer believes that independent music, as a genre, is highly important for artistes. “Sometimes you have something to say, but you cannot say it through movies because there are restrictions — situations given by the director that you have to follow — so you are tied up,” he explains. Drawing a comparison, he says that independent music flourishes in the West because their music industry is not dependent on the film industry.

Nowadays, the artiste has taken a backseat from churning out as many songs in Bollywood. “I am not just a singer, I am a composer as well. Because I’m balancing both, it takes me longer to compose a song. I was caught up with [composing for] Tum Bin 2 (2016) till its release. So, I spent about a year-and-a-half on the film. I am still learning, so I don’t realise how much time something will take,” explains Ankit.