I have written elsewhere on this site that Bollywood no longer controls what India listens to, and that the charts are now led by independent and regional releases. That is true. Deewaniyat is the song that keeps it honest.
It is a film title track. It is still on India's charts in September 2026. And it got there doing almost nothing the current playbook recommends.
The credits
Deewaniyat is the title song from Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat. Sung by Vishal Mishra, composed by Kaushik-Guddu, written by Kunaal Vermaa. The video is directed by Milap Milan Zaveri and features Harshvardhan Rane and Sonam Bajwa. It released in 2025 and has held since.
Worth pausing on that credit list, because it is the old machine working exactly as designed: a dedicated composer duo, a dedicated lyricist, a specialist playback vocalist, and a film to carry it. Four distinct crafts, four sets of hands.
What the film system still does better
The independent argument — mine included — is that the film-music pipeline is slow, extractive and no longer necessary for reach. All of that holds. But there are two things it still does better than almost any independent release, and pretending otherwise is not useful.
It gives a song a narrative to sit inside. A romantic ballad released cold has to establish its own emotional stakes in thirty seconds. A title track arrives with two hours of story already attached — you know who these people are and what is at risk before the first line. That is an enormous head start, and no amount of production polish substitutes for it.
It still separates the crafts. Mishra sings it; he did not also have to write it, compose it, mix it, cut the video and run the release. Kunaal Vermaa wrote lyrics and only lyrics. There is a reason film songs often have better words than independent ones: somebody whose entire job was the words wrote them.
The independent model asks one person to do six jobs. Most of us are genuinely good at two.
The ballad problem
There is a second thing Deewaniyat demonstrates, and it cuts against the cheerful version of the regional-crossover story.
The songs breaking through independently are overwhelmingly rhythm-led — danceable, croppable, built to survive a fifteen-second lift. A slow romantic ballad has none of those advantages. It needs time. It needs the listener to stay past the first verse. The feed is not built to give it either.
So how does a ballad chart for a year in 2026? It attaches itself to a film. That is, currently, the most reliable distribution route a slow song has.
Which means the honest summary is narrower than "independent music won". It is: independent and regional music has taken the up-tempo half of the market, and film music still owns the slow half. If you write ballads and you are independent, that is your actual competitive situation, and it is harder than the optimistic headlines suggest.
What to take from it
- If you write slow songs, you need a narrative substitute. A film gives a ballad context for free. Independently you must build it — a video with an actual story, a lyric page that explains the song, a release that says what it is about. The song alone will not do it.
- Separate the crafts where you can. If you can only afford to hand off one job, hand off the one you are weakest at. For most independent artists that is either lyrics or mixing.
- Do not measure a ballad by week-one numbers. Slow songs accumulate. Judge at six months.
From my side
I write Hindi and Marathi songs independently, mostly without the advantages described above — which is why I find Deewaniyat more instructive than the tracks that confirm what I already believe.
The ballads in my catalogue, with full lyrics and meanings, are at mygeetaibeat.com/lyrics.
Written by Anup Karanjkar — Married Moonda.
Sources: Deewaniyat on Spotify · Shazam credits · Top 10 Songs in India, September 2026
