Sai Abhyankkar thinks “Vizhi Veekura” is one of his most underrated songs. Stacked against his other hits, the numbers for the 2025 romantic single do not rack up that well. “A few songs take time to reach the audience,” says Abhyankkar. The composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist checks his smartphone only once or twice a week. This practice has enabled him to separate himself from viewing the number of reaches or views, which in turn has not affected the music he is making.
While he thinks social media presence is mandatory, the Chennai-based musician seems pretty unphased by the algorithm. “I think I watch the numbers, and I’m really happy about them, but I try to keep myself consistent with the effort before the release,” he tells Billboard India.
After the current set of work deadlines, the “Pavazha Malli” hitmaker will take a week off to learn new things and finesse his music production before the next film project. “There are a lot of things that musicians can learn every day. It’s like an ocean. A lot of things about software, theoretical stuff, voices, instruments, their basics, fundamentals – a lot,” Abhyankkar chimes. The 21-year old learnt music and trained in several instruments from a young age. For him, starting young helped, but he doesn’t believe learning has any age limits: “For me, starting young helped, but older people can also start learning at any age. There’s no rule like ‘only from this age can you learn’ or ‘at this age should you stop’. I personally feel that.”
As for needing sounding boards for his creative process, Abhyankkar turns first to his sister – fellow vocalist, Sai Smriti – and then Magesh R and Santhosh Kumar of the Think Indie label. Dubbing all three of them “brutal critics,” he expresses an artist’s need for such feedback. “I want them. People who say everything is nice will give a very short-lived success story. So we need critics and feedback… brutal feedback,” he insists.
