Balachandran's veena in Singh's 'Phir Se' from 'Dhurandhar' goes viral
That catchy veena solo in Arijit Singh's Phir Se (from the film Dhurandhar) that everyone's been sharing? It's by Ramana Balachandran, a Carnatic musician from Tiruvannamalai.
Music director Shashwat had been following Ramana's work on Instagram, and their collaboration ended up creating this much-loved viral moment.
Balachandran remains focused on veena versatility
Ramana grew up in Bengaluru, inspired by his music-loving parents. He started learning veena at nine after spotting a slip in his mom's playing, and later moved to Tiruvannamalai where he dove deeper into Carnatic music.
Even with all the buzz around Phir Se, Ramana says he's still focused on showing how versatile the classical veena can be, not just its use in film songs.
"It happened quite serendipitously, Shashwat bhai (music director) had been following my work on Instagram, and we connected through a common friend. The Dhurandhar team was warm, and asked me to keep in mind that it was a bittersweet situation. I was randomly playing some stuff, and we chanced upon the interlude. It was nice to get the freedom to express myself musically... but we had no idea that it would blow up so much."