This article touches on the career and creative journey of Shashwat Sachdev, tracing his musical upbringing in Hindustani and Western classical traditions, his early exposure to global cinema, and his evolution into a leading contemporary film composer. It covers his breakthrough with Uri: The Surgical Strike, the awards that followed, and his subsequent body of work across films like Attack, Tejas, Article 370, Ulajh, Kesari Chapter 2, Dhurandhar, and The Bads of Bollywood. The article also looks at his influences, his approach to scoring across genres and formats, and his international collaboration on the BBC series Virdee alongside Hans Zimmer and James Everingham.
Indian composer Shashwat Sachdev grew up watching films obsessively with his now wife, moving across languages, cultures, and cinematic traditions. Those hours spent with cinema shaped how he hears the world. "Much of what I compose is my attempt to translate visual emotion into sound — to score a landscape, a memory, a feeling that may not even exist yet," he notes. European cinema had a particularly strong influence on him, with its 'restraint, pacing and trust in silence'. That instinctive relationship with image and mood runs through his work today. Born in Jaipur, Sachdev began training in Hindustani classical music at the age of three, later studying Western classical piano, a dual foundation that informs his compositional voice. After working in Hollywood in his formative years, he returned to India in 2016 and emerged as one of the most distinctive composers of his generation, shaping the sound of contemporary Indian cinema across films, independent albums, and international collaborations.
His breakthrough came with 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' (2019), whose music became a cultural phenomenon and earned him the National Award, the IIFA Award, and the Filmfare R.D. Burman Award. The recognition marked a turning point, placing him firmly within the mainstream while allowing him to retain creative autonomy. Since then, his filmography has grown steadily, spanning projects such as 'Attack' (2022), 'Tejas' (2023), 'Article 370' (2024), and 'Ulajh' (2024), with 2025 bringing projects such as 'Kesari Chapter 2', 'The Bads of Bollywood', and 'Dhurandhar'. Across these films and shows, his approach has remained consistent.
“For me, the process never really changes — only the material does. Music always begins with the writing. The script tells you what it wants to become, if you listen closely enough.”Shashwat Sachdev
Speaking about moving between very different narrative worlds, Shashwat calls his music on the BBC thriller series, 'Virdee' "inward-looking, atmospheric, restrained — it lived in shadows and silences". 'Dhurandhar' required something entirely different: an expansive, guitar-driven sound rooted in espionage and tradecraft, designed to be entertaining while still emotionally grounded. "The emotional vocabulary was very different, but the honesty of the process remained the same," he notes.
Working on 'The Bads of Bollywood' with Aryan Khan brought yet another shift in palette — one of the 'joy, irreverence, drama, and sonic playfulness'. Sachdev describes Aryan as a storyteller who loves to narrate, and says much of his musical inspiration came from listening to him describe the world he was building. With filmmaker Aditya Dhar, the experience is different again. “His scripts are so alive on the page that they almost score themselves,” Sachdev says. That kind of writing, he adds, is liberating for a composer because it allows him to respond emotionally rather than intellectually.
That way of responding instinctively to images and emotion is closely tied to how Sachdev understands his own musical training. Having grown up with Hindustani classical music and Western classical piano side by side, he does not experience them as two separate disciplines that need to be consciously balanced. When he thinks in Indian classical terms, he says he is automatically aware of harmonic possibilities, modes, and the emotional colour of a raga. When he thinks in a Western orchestral language, he is instinctively aware of which raga would complement that emotional space. The movement between the two happens without effort. “The translation happens without effort — it’s almost subconscious,” he says, describing it as intuitive and closer to muscle memory than decision-making. "I often joke that if I could truly explain music in words, I probably wouldn’t need to write it. But the truth is, the conversation between these two worlds happens quietly, naturally, and constantly," he shares.
A collaboration that also marked a significant moment in Shashwat's international career, was when he became the first Indian composer to co-create alongside Hans Zimmer and James Everingham on Virdee. The scale of the association, however, was not what defined the experience for him, but how familiar the creative space felt from the beginning. “I never once felt out of my comfort zone,” he says. “The exchange was extremely organic, almost intuitive.” He describes a room shaped by curiosity and listening, where hierarchy did not dictate how ideas moved.
"What I truly appreciated was that the makers of the show were not looking for me to become something else. They were looking for my voice. That freedom changes everything. I wasn’t trying to adapt or dilute my instincts — I was simply doing what I do, honestly, and allowing that to coexist alongside other voices without taking anything away from them."Shashwat Sachdev
Shashwat brought in ideas instinctively, shaping them through melody and texture and allowing them to find their own emotional weight. Those ideas were not diluted or negotiated away as the process unfolded. Seeing them settle into the final theme of the show became the most meaningful part of the collaboration for him. “What made me happiest was seeing those ideas not just survive the process, but find their rightful place — eventually becoming the final theme of the show. That felt deeply affirming.”
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