Jul 08, 2026 4:04pm IST
Aditya Rikhari: ‘The Hindi Film Industry Opened So Many Doors For Me, But My Indie Roots Are Where The Honesty Is.’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Forget the streaming charts for a second because Aditya Rikhari is building something much bigger than just numbers. Yes the numbers are dizzying with his Spotify presence exploding from 8,00,000 to over 5 million followers and 1.87 crore monthly listeners in just a single year alongside 1.02 million subscriber milestone on YouTube. Yet if you sit down to chat with him you quickly realize that focusing purely on the metrics misses the entire plot. The real story here is the evolution of an introverted singer songwriter who is actively rewriting how an independent Indian artist interacts with the massive machinery of mainstream commercial entertainment. He went from writing vulnerable acoustic melodies in his room to sitting as a mentor on Amazon MX Player’s high stakes reality show I-Popstar next to King, Parmish Verma and Aastha Gill.
"We had 8,00,000 followers a year ago and just after a year we touched 5 million followers" says Rikhari in an exclusive chat with Variety India while reflecting on the shift. "The metric is always very important because people don't usually follow easily. We really need people who follow and subscribe because that makes us feel that yes, people have related to something and they want to follow us." Despite the scale of his new audience his mindset remains firmly anchored in the indie community. When stepping onto the judging panel for I-Popstar he did not look at the contestants from a pedestal. "More than feeling that I see myself in them I still feel that I am one of them" he confesses. "I always used to talk with my co-judges and the team that how can I judge on what metrics should I judge because I feel I perform around the same thought process, the same type of writing. The rest of the judges, King, Aastha Gill and Parmish Verma, they've all been in the industry for a much longer time than me. But yeah there was only one thought that came into my head and it was that I'm so grateful."
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Stepping into the glossy world of television was a massive leap for a creator rooted in raw acoustic minimalism. "It was a first time experience for me of course so abhi tak sab tv pe dekha tha" he laughs. "The first couple of days were really really strange for me and I was really nervous. But the team and the rest of the judges all made me comfortable. So who meri acoustic settings se bhaar nikal ke jo may ne cheeze seekhi is what I learnt. They used to always say that ‘We like this about Aditya we like this about Aditya's music and we got inspired or we love this.’" Interestingly the show's producers were initially terrified that his quiet indie demeanor wouldn't translate to commercial television. "Production was a little hesitant to get to know me" Aditya shares. "They used to think that I’m very introverted and timid. How would he be able to do all those pranks and jokes. But all I used to say was that ‘You just wait for a bit.’" By the finale the production team was begging him to return for future iterations. "All the talks have been there since the last day of the season one" he teases regarding a potential Season 2. "And after that there have been talks and I think it's going to happen. But we don't know when because I think they're busy for iPopstar South version also."
This seamless transition from the indie fringes to the commercial core is also redefining his relationship with the Hindi film industry. Tracks like “Samjho Na” crossing over into “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (2024) as “Jaana Samjho Na” highlights a broader trend of Hindi cinema adopting independent music. Aditya views this shift with a sharp pragmatic clarity. "We need to understand that all of this remaking of songs and already hit songs in the movie is just not as simple and that it's a marketing tool" he states openly. "The song is good, it's placed in the movie. If any independent artist or any new artist gets a chance and gets the exposure there's nothing wrong in that and gets paid fairly along with that." For him the crossover has become a gateway to versatile creative collaborations rather than a compromise of his identity. "The Hindi film industry opened so many doors for me but my indie roots are where the honesty is" he notes, pointing to his recent playback and composition work with Sachin Jigar on “Sunn Mere Yaar Ve” from “Param Sundari” (2025) and his foray into the Telugu industry with “Tu Jahaan” in “Dacoit”.
As he prepares for the second half of 2026, Aditya is busy channeling this momentum into a highly anticipated new EP packed with major collaborations and reimagined live shows. Yet, through all the commercial noise his core songwriting process remains remarkably pure and protective against the trap of overthinking. "When we reach that stage, we know that the song is complete" Aditya says, explaining how he preserves the raw magic of hits like "Sahiba" and "Faasle". "After that, when overthinking kicks in everything starts feeling like it is not enough. Should I add something new? Should I add this element? At that point you just need to listen to yourself and hold on to what you feel. How I personally go about it is simple if I am happy and satisfied with it I should not play with it anymore and I will not overthink it."
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