Achint Thakkar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Achint Thakkar

• Achint Thakkar grew up in Mumbai.

• He developed an interest in music during his school days. Initially, it was mainly a way for him to skip classes.

• Achint was also part of his school’s cricket team, but he was dropped for being late to practice. He then became fascinated by his friends who played instruments and decided to learn the guitar himself.

• After finishing his class seven exams, Achint convinced his father to buy him his first guitar. At first, he pretended to know how to play, but he gradually learned by watching other members of his school band, which mostly performed cover songs.

  

• After school, Achint formed the psychedelic rock band ‘Rosemary’ in Mumbai with Suraj Manik and Jason D’Souza. Jason was later replaced by Aditya Ashok, also known as DJ OX7GEN.

• Rosemary gained recognition in the college music circuit and won major festivals such as Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay) and Strawberry Fields (National Law School, Bengaluru).

• In May 2011, Rosemary released its EP titled A Legacy of Ruined Days.

• After a few successful years, Rosemary disbanded when the members decided to pursue independent music careers.

• Achint later moved to San Francisco to study music production at the Pyramind Institute. During this time, he began working on his first solo album, Shalimar.

• While living abroad, he often felt homesick and started reconnecting with the songs he loved as a child. Music by Bollywood and Indipop legends such as Jatin-Lalit, A. R. Rahman, Nadeem-Shravan, and R. D. Burman greatly influenced his style.

• Achint composed most of ‘Shalimar’ while staying in a warehouse basement in the U.S., usually working at night. Those late hours inspired the album’s title, which means ‘moonlight.’

• After graduating from Pyramind Institute, Achint returned to Mumbai in September 2013 and began working on ad films to sustain himself financially.

• Half of the album Shalimar was written in the United States and the rest in India. A trip to his ancestral village, Bhetasi in Gujarat, helped him reconnect with his roots and inspired the title track ‘Shalimar.’

  

• Interestingly, Shalimar’s opening track, ‘Enter Shalimar,’ was born from an unused tune he had originally created for an Adidas advertisement.

• For the album, he collaborated with several talented artists, including singer Neeti Mohan and flautist Naveen Kumar.

• In 2015, Achint released his single ‘Piya Basanti (Redux).’

• To promote ‘Shalimar,’ he began touring across India and performed at the Nariyal Paani indie music festival held in Alibaug in January 2016.

• In 2018, he came out with the album Achint & The Khan Brothers. In 2021, he released the single “Gaye Vo Kahan?” for Abhishek Upmanyu’s stand-up special Team Animals.

• Achint contributed as an additional composer to Amazon Prime’s ‘Four More Shots Please’ (2019) and Netflix’s ‘Maska'(2020), where he collaborated with renowned music composer Mikey McCleary.

• In 2020, he worked on the original soundtrack for the television series ‘Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story,’ which streamed on SonyLIV.

• In 2022, Achint composed the original soundtrack for SonyLIV’s ‘Rocket Boys.’

• That same year, he composed all the songs for the film ‘Monica, O My Darling.’

  

• In 2023, he created the music for SonyLIV’s ‘Rocket Boys’ (Season 2) and Netflix’s ‘Scoop.’

• In 2023, Achint created the title track for the film ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahan.’

  

• In 2023, he dropped two singles, ‘Khalasi’ and ‘Papa Gaye,’ the latter for Umanyu’s special Jealous of Sabziwala.

 

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• He composed the song ‘Junoon Hai’ for the film ‘Mr. & Mrs. Mahi’ (2024).

  

• In 2024, he composed the original soundtrack for Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘Lootere.’

• Achint also worked on the film ‘Jigra’ (2024), composing all the songs except ‘Chal Kudiye.’

  

• In 2024, he released ‘Anjaane’ and ‘Jugni’ (Maati S1), the latter performed with Vishal Dadlani and Varun Grover.

  

• Achint has composed music for several well-known brands, including Disney, Puma, MRF, Global Desi, Budweiser, Bobbi Brown, Philips, and The Gates Foundation.

• His creative work has also been featured in campaigns by top advertising agencies such as DDB Mudra and Lowe Lintas.

• Achint is an avid animal lover and has a few pets, including a dog named Candy.