The article looks at 'Iss Tarah,' the new collaborative single between Chaar Diwaari and Sonu Nigam, and explores what this unlikely pairing represents in the larger landscape of Indian music. It situates Chaar Diwaari’s internet-born, self-produced experimental sound alongside Sonu Nigam’s legacy as a major playback singer, examining how the track brings their two musical worlds together. Through the song, the article reflects on shifting boundaries between indie and mainstream music in India, and how this collaboration challenges the idea that those spaces are separate.

Chaar Diwaari just dropped a song with Sonu Nigam, which is an unexpected collab, but maybe there’s something bigger going on here. What is a 22-year-old independent artist who built his name inside internet subcultures doing with an industry legend, one of the most recognisable playback voices of the last three decades? This collaboration feels like two different spaces that have already been orbiting each other for years, meeting in a memorable moment.

Garv Taneja, who performs as Chaar Diwaari, quite literally built his early sound through pure creative instinct. His 2022 EP Teri Maiyat Ke Gaane was messy in the best way possible — glitchy electronics, emo-rap cadences, sudden tonal shifts, all over his self-produced tracks that sounded like no one else. The EP featured underground names like MC Kode, Arpit Bala, and Yashraj, artists who operate in the same internet-first ecosystem, and the production was his own, like many indie artists who work closely with collaborators to design their own sound. 

And then comes Sonu Nigam. If you grew up in India in the late 90s or 2000s, Sonu Nigam’s voice is stitched into your memory whether you like it or not. From romantic ballads to devotional tracks to high-energy film songs, he has done everything. He belongs to that generation of singers who became stars in their own right, whose voices were larger than the actors they sang for. But playback singing also comes with a structure — you sing for a film, you serve a character, you operate within the emotional needs of a screenplay, and even if you are Sonu Nigam, you are part of that system. 

In interviews over the last few years, Sonu critiqued the way songs are often made just to promote films instead of having a life of their own, encouraging singers to experiment beyond predictable paths. Which is what he seems to be doing on Iss Tarah. His voice has the same old magic of a true romantic, but it is placed inside Chaar Diwaari’s world of electronic textures and hip-hop/breaks/trap rhythms. It feels less like a Bollywood song disguised as indie, and more like a conversation between two artists who come from different worlds.

But how different are these worlds? Indian music didn’t always look like this binary of “Bollywood versus indie.” In the 90s and early 2000s, we had a full-blown Indi-pop ecosystem. Alisha Chinai had Made in India, Lucky Ali had O Sanam, bands like Euphoria were releasing albums that weren’t attached to films, and channels like Channel V and MTV India were building youth culture around singles. 

However, that ecosystem didn’t sustain itself. Alisha Chinai has spoken about how the scene became diluted once everyone tried to jump in, and how quality suffered. Neeraj Sridhar of Bombay Vikings has talked about record labels pulling back investment when Bollywood composers began absorbing pop sounds into film music. Gradually, non-film pop shrank, and Bollywood became the dominant machine again. We still had a great run during this era in the 2000s and early 2010s. Pritam was delivering melody-driven hits, Kailash Kher brought folk sounds into mainstream consciousness, A.R. Rahman was experimenting with soundscapes that felt global yet rooted in the devotion of Sufi, and Arijit Singh emerged with a voice that defined a generation of heartbreak. 

Then, sometime in the mid-2010s, remakes became the new mantra. Producers and marketing teams realised a familiar hook cuts through promotion clutter, so old songs were dusted off, sped up, pumped with new beats and used to sell films. You saw it everywhere — Humma Humma, Aankh Marey, Dilbar, the raft of recreated tracks that dominated soundtracks for a few years — and people started pushing back because the new versions often stripped away what made the originals work. The Masakali 2.0 backlash and A.R. Rahman’s tweet to “enjoy the original” were blunt reminders that a lot of listeners felt the industry had become lazy, and the whole system began playing it safe.

However, Parallel to that, luckily for us, the independent scene was cooking. Streaming platforms lowered barriers, and YouTube became a launchpad. Artists could upload a track and find their audience without waiting for a label. The sound was different — more personal, more niche, often messier, but more experimental, daring, and most importantly, fresh. With Prateek Kuhad’s cold/mess was streaming globally, Ritviz’s Udd Gaye blowing up on YouTube and festival circuits, Divine and Naezy building Indian hip-hop from the ground up, and The Local Train and When Chai Met Toast selling out college shows, the independent scene became the new breeding ground for creativity. So much so that it fostered the general perception that Bollywood = mainstream slop, indie = pure artistry.

Which was my initial reaction too when I saw Chaar Diwaari working with Sonu Nigam – oh no, is he stepping into the same industry I’ve been criticising for its remakes and laziness? Is this where the edge gets sanded down?

Nope. ‘Iss Tarah’ is nothing like we’ve heard before. It’s a refreshing, production-forward song with notable trap rhythms, synth layers, and voice modulations of a modern electronic track before an instrumental bridge featuring a Sarangi brings in Sonu’s verse. He still has the incredible range and heart-melting soaring vocals, in a more devotional, almost surrendering lyricism about love.The words circle around two incomplete people wanting to become whole; to melt into each other before time slips away, asking what prayer or grace led them here. Tomorrow. Ironically as you think of these people, the brilliant union of Chaar Diwaari and Sonu Nigam’s sonic identities also come to mind – both of their style and sensibilities, and a mutual instinct to push past their own boundaries, to birth something new.

Follow Chaar Diwari here, Sonu Nigam here and listen watch the visualizer for 'Iss Tarah' at the top of the page.

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