Oct 02, 2026 10:57am IST
Vishal Bhardwaj to Release 200 Original Songs Through His Music Label (EXCLUSIVE)
Vishal Bhardwaj has spent four decades creating some of Indian cinema’s most distinctive film music. From “Maqbool” and “Omkara” to “Kaminey,” “Haider” and “Rangoon,” Bhardwaj’s music has often functioned as an extension of his storytelling rather than simply as an interruption between scenes. Now, the filmmaker-composer is turning to an entirely different kind of canvas: his own independent music label.
Speaking to Variety India, Bhardwaj reveals that he has accumulated nearly 200 songs over the course of his career that have never been recorded or released. Through his label, VB Music, he plans to finally bring those songs to listeners, with an ambitious target of releasing around 20 tracks a year. “I have about 200 songs with me over 40 years of my career. They are still with me. I have started actually recording and registering them,” he says.
Related Stories
For Bhardwaj, the label is less about building another commercial music business and more about creating a space where he can experiment without having to service the narrative demands of a film. “In films, 90% of the time, we record music which tells, connects, follows a story, or supports a character, movement, or emotion. But, in independent music, we have so much to explore,” he explains.
That freedom is central to the idea behind VB Music.“My ambition to make that label was the songs which don’t sell, which are not going to sell,” he shares.
The comment is particularly revealing coming from a filmmaker whose film soundtracks have themselves acquired an identity far beyond the movies they were created for. During the conversation about “Lust Stories 3,” Bhardwaj also spoke about why music remains one of his favorite parts of filmmaking. “I have often said that I became a director because I could employ myself as a music director. That has been my goal: to become a music director,” he says.
The music label, therefore, offers Bhardwaj the opportunity to reverse that relationship: instead of creating music in service of a film, he can create music simply because the song itself demands to exist.
For a composer who has spent decades balancing melody, narrative, character and atmosphere, VB Music could become a repository for a different side of his musical personality, one that cinema has not always had room for. And with approximately 200 songs waiting in the wings, Bhardwaj appears to have a substantial archive to draw from. The first phase of that journey, he says, will involve releasing roughly 20 songs every year. For Bhardwaj, the idea is not necessarily to chase the numbers. It is to finally give those songs a life of their own.
Comments are moderated. They may be edited for clarity and reprinting in whole or in part in Variety publications.