Everyone starts somewhere small. “2019. With an old computer table, home theatre speakers as “studio monitors.” No acoustic treatment. No roadmap. I got my first PC for gaming like every other kid. Somewhere along the way, I downloaded FL Studio. I didn’t know what I was doing — I just kept trying. Bad mixes. Long nights. Learning step by step,” writes Ankith Gupta in an Instagram post about how he built his success story, one musical experiment at a time.
Today, in 2026, the 22-year-old Chennai-based independent music producer’s Instagram bio reads, ‘Member at GRAMMY and Voting Member 2026 of Recording Academy’. This recognition makes Ankith one of the youngest Indians to receive the honour. “For me, it (the recognition) means a lot because I always wanted to be an advocate for music, acknowledge new works by musicians, and make music lovers hear new tracks,” shares Ankith.
In the wider picture, this industry milestone and global peer acknowledgement is a stride towards bringing the global spotlight to Tamil music — a defining moment for his career, notes Ankith. The international market has heard Punjabi and Hindi songs. But, “The Tamil music industry has always been labelled as a sector that only does movie songs. Hence, I want more people to release Tamil singles in every genre because you never know which genre is going to hit the international market and people will like it,” he explains.
Ankith envisions a music industry defined by newer and upcoming artistes. “I always wanted to make a difference in music. I wanted to bring recognition to fellow musicians apart from myself,” he says.
He laid the foundation towards this musical mission in 2020 with 7500. The title mixes a total of 14 global and regional languages — English, Arabic, German, Jamaican, Italian, Swedish, Nepali, Spanish, Malayalam, Hindi, Bangla, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu — the feat finding a place in Guinness World Record, India Book of Records, and Asia Book of Records. He believes this song could have played an important role in the recognition. “I am someone who always likes working in different languages; and as someone who always wants to take regional voices to global music, I’m pretty sure that did play a good role in it,” he notes.
The common philosophical expression, music has no language, sparked an interest in Ankith to work on a song that conveys the same lyrics and the same meaning in 14 different languages. “I worked with artistes from across the globe. They were interested in working in new languages, and every language sounded beautiful. The whole process was nice because everyone was recording in their own house, making music together,” he says.
The community is expanding in terms of bigger artistes consistently working with smaller artistes because of easier reach and the work they put out on various social media platforms
Ankith Gupta
Ankith, in his previous works, has often collaborated with multiple artistes and explored genres, musicians, and dialects. His musical releases are highly influenced by Chennai. “Though I work with hip-hop, the extensive percussion which I use in my drums or my rhythms is highly influenced by what I’ve been hearing around,” he says, adding that our city is always known for its collaborations. “It is not like I stick to my kind of music or the other musician does the same. People here are expanding and want to work with people, and that is something which I really like,” he adds.
For musical partnerships to work efficiently, social media has been a boon, and Ankith’s mission of lesser-known artistes getting recognition has become quick. Currently, he is working with “various underground artistes who are yet to become known faces.” The other project that he dedicates his time to is a traditional folk album which is “completely different from what I usually do. I am doing this extensively just for the rich sound which Chennai and Tamil Nadu carry,” he notes.
Ankith continues to work at his studio. Not the 2019 version, but a fully soundproof room with custom-built studio monitors, and a state-of-the-art Dolby 7.1 mix system. In this seven-year journey, besides his dedication, his PC and monitor were his constant companions. “Because the real upgrade was never the computer. It was the consistency. The mindset. The support system.” writes Ankith in the same Instagram post.
