Wordsmith would describe Ankur Tewari quite succinctly. But it doesn’t quite cover the variety of roles that the singer-songwriter, poet, award- winning lyricist, entrepreneur and now music supervisor has taken on over the years.

 

Part of the Indian independent music scene since 1998, Ankur – with each passing year – has crafted a space for himself that allows him to wear one or two avatars at the same time.

 

As singer-songwriter he has a multitude of singles and albums and EP to his name. His latest release being a six-track, lullaby record called Aaja Nindiya for one of India’s newest music label, Tiger Baby Records – which Ankur has co-founded with Bollywood power duo Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The summer of 2023 will also see him release his first album since 2017, Akela.

 

Gifted with the ability to make the mundane sound sublime, Ankur has often chosen to speak up, on issues and for people. His 2019 single ‘Dhuaan Dhuaan – a song about climate change and Delhi’s rising pollution levels – garnered over 1 million views on YouTube on the day of its release. The Ankur & The Ghalat Family frontman has also hosted the music-meets-travel show, MTV’s Sound Trippin’ in 2020.

 

The 2019 film Gully Boy introduced mainstream Indian to rap and hip-hop and the film industry to music supervisors, a role that Ankur has come to wear like a well-fitted jacket. Since then, Ankur has supervised the music side of things for projects like Amazon Prime’s Made in Heaven (2019) and the 2022- released Indian romantic noir drama, Gehraaiyaan – for which he was nominated for best lyricist at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA). Ankur had won best lyricist for ‘Apna Time Aayega’ with DIVINE at the 2020 Filmfare Awards.

 

He dons the music supervisor role again for the much-awaited Netflix film, The Archies and an upcoming show for Amazon Prime,  which he’s also written, show-running and co-directing. 2023 has already seen him serve as the creative architect and music supervisor on the first season of Coke Studio Bharat, that featured 50 artists collaborating and creating a 8-track soundtrack.

 

When not busy with making music for the movies, the co-founder of Kommune – which runs India’s largest spoken word festival called Spoken – is a member of the Hindi Samiti with the New Delhi government, which works to popularise Hindi in the region.

 

Away from the arts, Ankur has offered his time to a number of NGOs and non-profit organizations. He has worked with CRY for their 40th anniversary, with Leher India on The Minor Project – for which he is an ambassador against child labour and abuse – and Asar India to help spread awareness about climate change.