October 11 2026
Siddhant Bhatia: Taking Indian spiritual sounds global, with IndiLat as his latest cross-cultural venture
(Oct 11, 2026) Grammy-nominated musician, producer and sound engineer Siddhant Bhatia is exploring new ways to bring Indian spirituality to international audiences. Through IndiLat, a collective blending Indian sounds with Latin music, and projects spanning wellness research and contemporary devotional music, he is building musical bridges across cultures without losing the complexity of India’s heritage.
His love for music began as early as five. And by his teenage years, Siddhant Bhatia’s interest had become so intense that the Delhi boy would spend his free time travelling across the city to delve deeper into India’s musical history. He would regularly take a bus to the Sangeet Natak Akademi library, reading about old masters and trying to understand different ‘gharanas’.
His formal initiation into music happened when one of his teachers took a keen interest in his passion, setting him on a journey of learning that has only deepened with time. Bhatia has since then trained under Ustad Munir Khan, the first disciple of Ustad Amir Khan, and continues to learn from Ustad Jawad Ali Khan, the grandson of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
“I consider myself very fortunate to have learned from the ‘sun and moon’ of classical musical lineage,” the Grammy-nominated musician, producer, composer, sound engineer and CEO of SoulTrax Studios tells The Global Indian.
A background of science and arts
Though Siddhant’s work has taken him from Indian classical music and devotional sounds to international collaborations, wellness research and large-scale global music projects; his beginnings were rather science-oriented. Coming from a family steeped in science and academics, with his father being a dual-degree engineer and his mother holding a PhD in immunology, Siddhant was as deeply interested in biology and science as he loved the arts.
However, he allowed the contrasting interests to grow alongside each other and even found a way to merge them when he decided to pursue audio engineering. “It was my mother who told me about the field, which was extremely new, in the early 2000s,” he reflects.
Siddhant eventually travelled to Australia to study at the SAE College, where his batch brought together students from more than 50 countries. He found himself studying and jamming with musicians from different parts of the world, absorbing their approaches to music and sound. “The entire course in Australia was like a global cultural download,” he says.
When sound became a subject of research
The experience also shaped his academic interests. His research honours project focused on binaural beats and wellness music, taking him deeper into the relationship between sound, music and healing. “It was a very big deal for me as that is when I realised that music for healing is something very powerful.”
After returning to India, Siddhhant moved into advertising and sound-related work. But his classical training and interest in India’s musical heritage remained the backbone of his creative identity.
In 2016 came a major project: Ananta, an ambitious album that brought together some of the country’s most celebrated names, including Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Rashid Khan and Hariharan.
I recorded with nearly 30 of the top musicians of India. It became historically the world’s largest compilation of original Indian music.
Siddhant Bhatia
This was followed by Sounds of Kumbha, a 12-track collaborative album inspired by the Mahakumbh gathering, on which he served as a principal producer and creative force. The project went on to earn a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album.
From India to Latin America
Earlier this year at the Grammys, Siddhant met musicians from South America and began exploring the parallels between Indian spirituality and Latin American traditions.
We all realised that there was such a rich history between India and South America. India, in a very real sense, has been an exporter of spirituality while South America too is known for its shamans, the Amazon Rainforest, and a culture rooted in herbal and organic traditions.
Siddhant Bhatia
The conversations eventually grew into IndiLat, a cross-cultural collective bringing together Indian and Latin American musicians. Siddhant Bhatia is part of the four-member group alongside fellow Indian producer Raghav Mehta; Chilean producer Cristóbal “Tibo” Gajardo and Venezuelan producer Raniero Palm.
IndiLat’s first release, ‘Muévete’, is an upbeat track inspired by the body’s seven chakras. Recently released by Vedam Records, Universal Music India’s wellness-focused music label, it brings together Indian musical elements such as konnakol, sitar and tabla with contemporary Latin percussion and Spanish-language vocals.
“‘Muévete’ means move it and as the name goes, the track moves between Indian spiritual thought, contemporary electro-pop and Latin music,” explains Siddhant.
With a unique approach to cultural collaboration, he notes that the collective works towards merging different musical vocabularies with ease, rather than forcing one culture to be boxed inside another. “For me, it is interesting to adapt to what they are thinking. And that is how the cultures get exchanged,” he says.
Giving Indian spirituality a contemporary sound
Siddhant is convinced that India’s spiritual traditions do not need to be diluted to find contemporary audiences, they just simply need to be presented differently. This approach has also informed his work with devotional music and the growing movement around ‘bhajan clubbing’.
Involved in large-scale bhajan clubbing events, he believes that the growing interest in spiritual music among younger audiences is less to do with a new discovery and more about a fresh presentation of something that has always existed. “Spiritual music has always been around. It has just been repackaged with the cool name of ‘bhajan clubbing’,” he quips.
He sees the current generation increasingly curious about spirituality, but unwilling to engage with it only through traditional formats. “People are realising that there is so much power and depth in our spirituality. The audience wants to explore and so do the creators. It’s truly an exciting time.
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Keeping the roots, changing the language
Siddhant himself moves easily between worlds. He can speak about Ustad Amir Khan and Ustad Rashid Khan, while also discussing Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, contemporary production and the work of international sound engineers.
“As a sound engineer, I am a huge fan of commercial music and believe that Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson’s music have shaped the industry,” he says and adds, “In fact, I even had the opportunity to meet Jackson’s sound engineer at the Grammy’s. But my larger aim is to listen to everything and deliver something of my own.”
That’s the reason his work doesn’t involve simplifying Indian music until it becomes unrecognisable but finding a language through which people can connect with it.
The Western world gets very overwhelmed with the technicality and intricacy of Indian music. The challenge is to find a point of entry without reducing its complexity and keep the philosophy cleanly rooted in our sounds. I want to deliver a commercial twist to it, which we have achieved with ‘Muévete’.
Siddhant Bhatia
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The next chapter
‘Muévete’ is only the beginning of the seven-chakra series Siddhant Bhatia is developing. More spiritual live performances, compositions, collaborations and international projects are in the works. He is also looking at bringing his Latin American collaborators to India. But even a live performance, he says, cannot simply be a presentation of Latin music to an Indian audience. “We have to figure out something that both audiences appreciate.”
For Siddhant, the answer lies in listening widely, collaborating honestly and then creating something entirely new of his own.
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Siddhant Bhatia
| Born | Nov 30 |
| Based | Delhi, India |
| Studied | Byron Bay, Australia |
| Languages | Hindi, English, Punjabi, Sanskrit |
Signature work
Siddhant Bhatia produced Ananta, a major compilation of original Indian music featuring nearly 30 leading musicians, and Sounds of Kumbha, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Global Music Album. His latest venture, IndiLat, brings Indian and Latin American musicians together, blending Indian spiritual traditions with contemporary Latin sounds.
Idea
Bringing India’s classical music, spiritual traditions and ancient knowledge to global audiences through sound and cultural exchange.
Network
Connecting Indian classical musicians, global producers, sound engineers and Latin American artists through collaborative music projects.
Impact
reating contemporary expressions of Indian classical and spiritual music through Ananta, Sounds of Kumbha and IndiLat.
Giving Back
Supporting emerging musicians through education, internships and work opportunities, while offering studio access to those unable to afford professional recording facilities.
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