Farhan Akhtar: The more I perform live, the more I realise that it is important to be yourself on stage

Back on the road for live gigs and in love with life as a musician, Farhan Akhtar might just be channelling Audioslave’s Be Yourself. Being on the stage, the singer-actor-filmmaker admits, has helped him realise the importance of living in the moment.

“The more that I perform live, the more I realise that it is important to be yourself on the stage. There is absolutely no need to do anything out of the ordinary. You can just go there, and perform. It is important that you enjoy what you are doing, and for that you have to be in the moment completely,” Akhtar says.

The 49-year-old adds, “When that happens, the audience enjoys what you are doing. So, performing live has encouraged me more and more to live in the moment, and not really stress too much about what has happened, or what is about to happen”.

In fact, he is cherishing the sheer ability to perform again after the live circuit remained majorly soundless for over an year due to the pandemic, as he mentions, “it was extremely frustrating for everyone to be confined within their homes… Now, things are back in a big way, there is huge excitement to meet everyone, congregating in groups, and having such community experiences”.

He recently performed some of his original English songs from the album Echoes at a music festival, and will once again use the live performance ground at Vh1 Supersonic to witness people’s reaction to his new music.

Explaining the thought behind playing his yet to be released music at different gigs, the actor-director says, “It is special because each venue has a new audience. For instance, at Supersonic, an audience looking for different kinds of music will come, and not just one specific. So, it is nice to get a sense of how people, who have not heard this music before, will feel about it. It is something new as an experience (every time). I am really excited to play my music from the set which we have especially created for Supersonic in Pune”.

The actor, who has added his musical touch to projects such as Rock On!!, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Rock On 2, and Dil Dhadakne Do, is not fretting about the larger share of audience which Hindi music sector enjoys as compared to the Indie music sector.

“Everything has its set of audiences, and some audiences may be bigger than others. The Hindi music scene will have way more listeners than the Indie music scene. I practise that one has to be true to oneself. As a writer, my music is how I feel I can best express myself. I have done what I feel was right, and there is an audience for it,” he says, adding, “I see the English independent work as a place where I want to continue down the same path… I don’t really have a clearer idea of what it will be. But do I want to keep going down this path and continue down this journey of self expression to music? Absolutely”.