Rithvik Dhanjani is a great actor but his inclination toward music and understanding of the art is noteworthy too.
Actor Rithvik Dhanjani is one of the most talented actors and his zest for music is evident in his Instagram posts. Recently, the Cartel actor hopped onto a yacht, away from the city’s hustle and bustle, and played handpans. For Rithvik, music is synonymous with meditation, and on World Music Day, Pinkvilla exclusively spoke to the actor to know his music choices and more. Read on:
For Rithvik Dhanjani, music is his comfort zone, and elaborating more about it, he said, “I have always said, Music to me it’s my escape. It’s my only comfort zone. It’s the place I want to go back to, it’s the support I wanna go back to when I’m lost, when I’m out of answers, when I literally don’t know what’s happening, I will just pick up my instrument and I’ll sit with it. That’s when I get the answers to so many things. To me, music is my solace, it’s my only cushion and thanks to the music that I have in my life, I can literally see rhythm in everything, in the way we work, in the way we talk and walk and see everything. Rhythm is there everywhere and the moment you can identify rhythm in life, your entire life and its journey becomes musical. And then you are literally dancing through life. You don’t really have to live.”
Watch Rithvik Dhanjani play an instrument.
We’ve seen Rithvik enjoy handpans wholeheartedly. Here’s how he was introduced to it. “An instrument that I love playing is the handpan. So that just randomly walked into my life. I remember I was in Berlin in 2018, and we were walking down the street when I saw this man playing this instrument. The sound coming out of the instrument was beautiful and mesmerising and I was totally taken by it. I don’t know, I was standing there for almost 40 minutes to an hour just listening to him play. I was totally mesmerised by the aura that the instrument created. That is when I was determined that I had to learn this instrument. Double is an instant connection, the handpan was calling out to me while I was walking but the sound just sort of captivated my thought, it captivated me in those moments and I had to know what that is. I asked the man about it and he told me all about hand pans and even gave me a bit of an insight into what it is, where its origins were, and a bit of some background information,” shared the actor.
Rithvik Dhanjani: Music was never something that I actively chose
“Yes, I have always been inclined towards music but I have no one person from whom I derive my inspiration. Music was never something that I actively chose, it was always me falling back on something for my comfort and peace of mind. My first choice was always to be on the stage and perform as an actor and do what I do as my craft, but music is my version and is my conjugate to everything. It was the support system behind everything, be it in my acting, be it in my dancing. It has always been a support and that’s how slowly and steadily I realised how much I love learning new instruments and how much I love playing these instruments,” asserted the Pavitra Rishta actor.
Rithvik Dhanjani plays a harmonica and a guitar:
The kind of music Rithvik loves to play and listen to
“I love listening to any and all types of music. My playlist includes songs from the 90s by the evergreen Kishore Da (Kumar) to somebody like Prateek Kuhad today. I think my playlist is massive. In fact, my playlist also has songs that I’ve never heard, but would always love to. And I love people in my life who introduce me to amazing music and I am thankful that there are a lot of them. I have no one particular genre that is my favourite. But if I have to, I usually love playing the flute the most as that is one of my favourites,” shared the 33-year-old.
When asked who his favourite musician is, Rithvik excitedly said, “There are a bunch of people that I absolutely love listening to. And Pratik Kuhad is one of them. I love Bruno Mars, John Legend, and from the olden times, there is Nusrat Saheb, Mehendi Hasan Saheb, Amit Trivedi, and many more. There are a variety of musicians that I’ve fallen in love with. I have a long list of people I love listening to, but these are the ones who come to mind right away.”