Raghu Dixit

Raghu Dixit
Raghu Dixit in concert at IISc, Bangalore
Background information
Born	(1974-11-11) 11 November 1974 Mumbai, India
Genres	Folk, Fusion
Years active	2005–present
Website	http://raghudixit.com
Members	Raghu Dixit Gaurav Vaz Nitesh Nataraj Bryden Lewis Parth Chandiramani
Past members	Wilfred Demoz Adarsha Ramakumar Joseph Vijay Karthick Iyer Darbuka Siva Jithin Das Bruce Lee Mani Rzhude David Anirban Chakravarthy Sandeep Vashista Rahool Pophali

Raghu Dixit (born November 11, 1974) is an Indian singer-songwriter, producer, and film score composer based in Bangalore, India. He is most famous for fronting the Raghu Dixit Project, a multilingual folk music band. Though a gold medalist in Masters in Microbiology and a proficient Indian classical dancer (Vidwat in Bharatanatyam), Raghupathy Dixit is now known more as a self-taught composer and musician. Originally from Mysore, he settled in Bengaluru. As the founder-front man of his band Antaragni for more than eight years, and now of The Raghu Dixit Project, Dixit has performed more than 2000 concerts all over the world. In 2008, The Raghu Dixit Project launched its debut album Antaragni: The Fire Within. Raghu is a self-taught guitarist and singer. The most catchy part of Raghu's concert is his unique voice which goes beyond ranges and the measured humor that he puts in without any effort. His unique combination of traditional Indian sounds mixed with western influences has brought him firmly into the spotlight

Dixit's music is an amalgamation of Indian ethnic music and styles from different parts of the world. In an interview with Vishnupriya Bhandaram of The Hindu, he mentions, "“Every 200 kilometres in this country, languages change, the dialects change and the food changes, lives and lifestyles change and my music is unique and probably the USP is that it's sung in a vernacular tongue… its adds mystery.” ^[1] His lyrics are about every common man's emotions and experience. His songs Mysore se aayi, Mumbai, Antaragni, Hey Bhagwan, Har Saans Mein, Gudugudiya, Khidki are popular among his fans. Most of his songs are influenced by Shishunala Sharif, a saint and poet from the state of Karnataka in India.

Dixit has produced music for contemporary dance and theatre productions. He has composed and produced music for most of the productions by the Indian contemporary dance group Nritarutya. Girish Karnad's Hayavadana for TopCast and Black Coffee's Body Catcher have been his most famous works that brought him critical acclaim as a composer for theatre productions.

In May 2008 Dixit joined Springboard Surprises' Roots Festival for a number of shows, touring many towns and cities within Northeast India, with international acts including Israel's DUB LFO and England's Too Late Lucy. Raghu Dixit also composes music for feature films.

Discography

2008: Raghu Dixit

Dixit's self-titled debut album was launched by the music director duo Vishal-Shekhar on their new independent record label Vishal & Shekhar Music which collaborated with Counter Culture Records for this release. Raghu Dixit was the first artist to be launched on this new label. The album was also released on world music label Wrasse Records and Sony/ATV on 20 September 2010. The album reached #1 on the iTunes World Music charts in the UK.^[2]

In the season one finale of The Dewarists, The Raghu Dixit Project collaborated with songwriter Guru Rewben Mashangva on the song "Masti Ki Basti".

2013: Jag Changa

Collaborating with artists he met during his previous concerts in the UK, The Raghu Dixit Project released their second studio album, Jag Changa. The album released on November 23, 2013. The album consists of eight tracks,^[3] in Hindi, Kannada and Tamil languages. Upon release, it met with widespread appreciation from listeners and critics alike.

Films

In 2008, he debuted as a music director in the Kannada film industry with Psycho.^[4] Raghu Dixit also composed and sang one song in the Bollywood movie Quick Gun Murugan. His new Kannada films, Just Math Mathalli and Kote, had soundtracks released recently, becoming a big hit with audiences. He made his Bollywood debut with the film Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge in 2011.^[5] In 2013 he debuted in Malayalam recording with Bijibal for North 24 Kaatham.

Concerts

He has played many shows all over the world including in the United States, the UK, Korea, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong and India. He performed in the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail of Bengaluru City. He played at the SAMA Festival in North East England, as part of a 6-day collaborative project involving folk musicians from Rajasthan and Northumbrian folk musicians from the UK. In 2007, he played at the French Kiss Tour – World Music Day (Fete de la Musique). The Raghu Dixit Project performed with three French musicians Anaïs, Emily Loizeau and Mademoiselle K. In February 2008, the Raghu Dixit Project performed at IIT Guwahati's cultural festival Alcheringa, their first performance in any college cultural festival. He also performed in the Indian Institute of Science on the eve of Miditha, a cultural fest. He was also the headlining act at Strawberry Fields 2010. Recently he performed at Infosys on the eve of cultural Fest "FIESTA" also performed at MSRIT Bengaluru dated 12/03/2012

In June 2011 the Raghu Dixit Project appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in myriad venues: firstly on Saturday in the Croissant Neuf tent, followed by an appearance on the John Peel stage on Sunday. Then later that day, they were guests with Mark Radcliffe and Jo Whiley for a performance in the BBC Glastonbury garden and finally performed on the Leftfield stage, curated by Billy Bragg.

In December 2011, the Raghu Dixit Project performed with the Indian Rock Band Agnee at the Open Air Theater in IIT Bombay for the Mood Indigo cultural festival.He also performed at the Festocomm 2012 at SIMC Pune in February 2012, and at MSRIT Bengaluru dated 12/03/2012. He performed in Jayciana 2011 at SJCE.

He performed at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, for the Celebrity night of the cultural festival, Synapse 2012.

In March 2012, he performed at BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, at the evening of SPREE Goa Half Marathon 2012, and at P.E.S. Institute of Technology's fest Aatmatrisha.

In 2010, he appeared on BBC TV's Jools Holland show which led to one of his songs becoming an instant download hit, and from the year 2010 onwards, he has made several appearances at festivals in the UK and in Europe. In the early months of 2011, he gave a concert as part of London South Bank's 'Alchemy' Festival. He has also visited the Andrew Marr Show to perform Waiting for a Miracle besides Raghu Dixit Session in radio 3 of BBC.^[6][7] He was a huge hit at the 2011, Glastonbury festival.^[6]

He was also nominated and awarded as best Newcomer in the Songlines for the year 2011.^[7]

In April 2012, he has performed for Queen Elizabeth II of England and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, at a spectacular Diamond Jubilee Pageant marking 60 years since her accession to the throne in 1952.^[8][9][9]

In January 2013, he performed in Tagore Open Air Theater(TOAT) at IIT Kharagpur during Spring Fest 2013.^[10] In February 2013, he performed in MANZAR-2013, annual intercollegiate cultural festival of Institute of Chemical Technology (formerly UDCT), Mumbai.^[11] In March 2014, he performed at annual cultural cum technical fest - "PYROKINESIS 2014" of Assam Engineering College. In March 2013, he performed at Kerala's largest cultural fest Dhwani_(festival) 2013 hosted by College of Engineering Trivandrum. ^[12] In September 2014, Raghu Dixit mesmerized an audience of thousands of eager fans at the National Level Non-Technical College Festival "Paramarsh 2014", organized by the students of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara.^[13]

On September 6, 2014, Raghu Dixit performed in NIE,Diamond Jubilee Hall to raise funds for charity

On February 22, 2015, Raghu Dixit performed in VNIT, Nagpur, at the VNIT college fest Aarohi 15. ^[14]

On November 2, 2014, Raghu Dixit performed at World Class Auditorium in BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus for their cultural fest 'Oasis', where he enchanted the crowd with personal anecdotes and classic hits. ^[15]

Filmography

Year	Film/Album	Language
2008	Psycho	Kannada
2009	Quick Gun Murugan	Hindi	Composed and sang one song
2009	Just Math Mathalli	Kannada
2010	Superman	Kannada	Shelved
2011	Kote	Kannada
2011	Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge	Hindi
2014	Bewakoofiyaan	Hindi
2015	S/O Satyamurthy	Telugu	Singer:"Chal Chalo Chalo"

Award

• Dixit was awarded "Best Newcomer" at the 2011 Songlines Music Awards.^[16]
• Favorite Singer Award at the 2008 SFM Kalaa Awards^[17]
• Best Alternative Act at the UK Asian Music Awards^[18]
• Best Live Performer -GIMA Music awards 2014^[19]

References

• Profile from Later... with Jools Holland performance on BBC2
• Review in The Guardian

External links

• The Raghu Dixit Project official website
• Raghu Dixit at the Internet Movie Database