Yash Raj Films Debuts Raah Records to Cultivate Independent Indian Music Talent

"Jaadugari" — the debut single from an emerging artist named Aman — just became the opening note of Yash Raj Films' most ambitious play in the indie space yet: Raah Records, a music incubator designed to do what most Indian labels won't, which is give original artists actual time to grow. As BizAsiaLive first reported, the launch marks YRF's first formal step into independent music beyond its five-decade film-soundtrack legacy.

The pitch is refreshingly old-school in the best way: skip the one-off single grind, build careers instead. As Akshaye Widhani, CEO of Yash Raj Films, frames it, "great artists need more than distribution — they need belief, time and long-term creative partnership." That thesis is then stitched into one model — A&R, artist development, marketing and distribution working together — rather than scattered across five middlemen chasing the next reel-ready hook.

Aman's "Jaadugari" — the first listening test

Raah Records' debut release lands on all major audio streaming platforms from 5th August. What caught my attention before pressing play was the runway Aman got: he reportedly spent close to a year in close creative collaboration with the Raah team — songwriting, production, vocal direction — before this drop. That's the kind of slow-cook refinement you can usually hear in the timbre and arrangement, where the mix breathes instead of slamming into a hook inside the first eight bars. The track itself is being positioned as the natural culmination of that incubation period, a release-by-design rather than a release-by-deadline.

The mixer in charge

Running Raah is Nakul Sharma, YRF's Senior General Manager – Music Management, who built the incubator's entire A&R philosophy from the ground up. Sharma's framing is telling: "Raah Records was built on a belief that artists need time, they need trust, and they need the space to grow into who they already are." For a scene that currently rewards whoever can ride a 15-second reel into a streaming feature, a five-decade-old studio backing careers-not-campaigns is a meaningful counterweight in the mixing console of Indian music.

More signings and original releases are reportedly lined up in the months ahead — worth keeping your headphones ready.