Composer Shashwat Sachdev didn’t rating two movies. He scored one.
When Sachdev sat right down to work on the “Dhurandhar” movies, there was no duology to talk of – only one sprawling script, one protagonist, one emotional arc. By the point the filmmakers determined throughout post-production to separate the fabric into two releases, the music had already been constructed to journey the complete distance. It reveals. With “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” turning into one of many greatest Indian field workplace hits of all time and the tracks “Aari Aari,” “Jaiye Sajna” and “Jaan Se Guzarte Hai” charting on Spotify India, Sachdev’s rating is pulling its full weight on each side of the display screen.
For Sachdev, nonetheless, the streaming numbers are a byproduct quite than an goal. “It’s one thing we’re conscious of, however we don’t let it management us,” he tells Selection. “We would like the viewers to benefit from the music outdoors the movie as properly. So we consider it as songwriting too, not simply rating. However we don’t design repeat worth. If the music is trustworthy, individuals return to it naturally.”
“Dhurandhar: The Revenge” is directed by Aditya Dhar – who helmed the Ranveer Singh-starring first installment, launched in December 2025 – and is produced by Jio Studios and B62 Studios. It follows an undercover Indian intelligence agent who continues to infiltrate Karachi’s legal syndicates and Pakistani politics whereas confronting bigger geopolitical threats, loosely incorporating actual occasions. The sequel was launched in theaters worldwide on March 19.
Each movies had been shot as a single built-in mission. The unique plan referred to as for one movie, however the quantity of footage and the dimensions of the narrative led the filmmakers to separate the fabric into two elements throughout post-production. Sachdev says that construction ended up shaping his whole musical method. “As a result of the fabric was written as one script, the music naturally got here from one unified thought,” he says. “We had been by no means composing with the intention of dividing it into two movies. It was at all times one emotional journey, one sonic journey.”
There was a central theme for the protagonist and a central tonality for the world, and all the things was constructed round that bigger arc. “So when the movie break up into two elements, the music already knew the best way to exist throughout each,” he says. Tracks like “FA9LA” carry that through-line throughout each releases. “The music was by no means written as two separate albums. It at all times existed as one evolving physique of labor. Id comes from the place the story is, continuity comes from intent.”
The sequel gave Sachdev extra room to push the fabric additional. A bigger orchestra and a hundred-piece choir added scale – however he’s fast to differentiate that from spectacle. “The actual growth was intimately,” he says. “The choir wasn’t only for grandeur, it coloured emotion. So the music turned extra expansive, but additionally extra inner.”
Cohesion throughout the album’s vary of textures – cinematic orchestration, digital manufacturing, and rooted Indian musical influences – comes, he argues, from a shared melodic and harmonic basis beneath the floor selection. “Even with a number of genres and textures, they’re held collectively by a shared melodic and harmonic id,” he says. “On the floor, issues might really feel completely different, however beneath, it’s one emotional dialog.” The sequel additionally drew on a wider collaborative canvas, with a number of composers and artists contributing to the soundtrack alongside Sachdev’s overarching imaginative and prescient. Music rights had been acquired by T-Collection.
Movie music in India as we speak is predicted to function concurrently as narrative structure and as a standalone streaming product, and Sachdev navigates that rigidity consciously. “We at all times attempt to make albums that work outdoors the movie as properly,” he says. “On the identical time, I typically get very immersed within the movie’s world, and my administrators pull me again to consider the way it interprets outdoors. So it’s at all times a stability between immersion and accessibility.”
Sachdev’s twin coaching – Hindustani classical music and Western classical piano – underpins his cross-genre fluency. “Western classical offers me construction and orchestration. Indian classical offers me emotional depth,” he says. “One builds the house, the opposite fills it with life. It’s not a mode, it’s how I hear music.”
Sustaining a transparent voice whereas collaborating throughout a number of artists and composers requires, in his view, a selected sort of resolve. “By being trustworthy and a bit fearless,” he says. “I keep true to what I imagine the music needs to be. That honesty turns into your voice. On the identical time, collaboration is essential. You pay attention and adapt, however you don’t lose your core.”
Earlier than establishing himself in India, Sachdev frolicked working in Hollywood – an expertise he credit with completely recalibrating his inner requirements. “Working with a number of the greatest adjustments the way you consider your personal work,” he says. “That stays with you and pushes your detailing additional.” The Indian Nationwide Movie Award he obtained for Dhar’s “Uri” had an analogous impact, although not in the best way public recognition often does. “It modified my expectations from myself,” he says. “It made me focus much less on validation and extra on progress.”
On the place his personal evolution has been most important, Sachdev factors to one thing much less technical. “I’ve began having fun with the method extra,” he says. “Earlier, I used to be extra severe and managed. Now I enable myself to discover and have enjoyable. That shift has made the music really feel extra alive.”
His subsequent ambitions are pointed outward. “Worldwide collaboration for me is about alternate – completely different musical worlds assembly with out shedding themselves,” he says. “That’s what I wish to discover extra.”
