Ayaan Agnihotri reveals Salman Khan's advice before he released his song Universal Laws: He asked what will you do...

Ayaan Agnihotri aka Agni comes from a lineage that boasts of names such as his grandfather, writer Salim Khan, and uncles, actors Salman Khan, Sohail Khan and Arbaaz Khan. Even his sister, Alizeh Agnihotri made her foray into acting in 2023. However, Ayaan chose a different path and went into music. He recently released his single Universal Laws and has been working on his own EP. Mention to him his lineage and he says, “It feels good to know that maybe I can contribute something that's different, something that people wouldn't expect, to the family.”

Ask him why he chose to dabble in English music and not Hindi and he says, “It's mainly the language that I think and speak in more fluently, that's why English. Also, the music that I was inspired by, that I listened to was in English. It's easier for me to express myself in English, hence that as my music choice.”

Recently, his uncle Salman had schooled Ayaan’s cousin Arhaan Khan and his friends on their podcast about not being fluent in Hindi and talking in the language while catering to an Indian audience. Does he also got influenced by it? “I agree with it, but from where I am standing, for me, this is the tougher and bigger battle. At the end of the day, English is the language of the world. There's a much larger audience base for me internationally doing English music than doing Hindi music. That's something that I really want to push for and fight for. This is where my heart is, this is what I love and what I want to do.”

The artiste adds, “It's not difficult for me to transition into doing Hindi music and it's not that I don't have. I've done a song with (musician) Himesh Reshammiya and I have a song with (composer duo) Sajid-Wajid that is in Hindi as well. But I'm trying to, at my level, delay them as much as possible because I just want an opportunity for my music that I am so passionate about and I spent so much time developing. I'm very happy to do Hindi music later as well. But I wanted a fair shot at trying to establish myself at this too because if I do Hindi first and get accepted there , I don't know if I would ever get accepted in English.”

Even though Ayaan had a well-known family behind him, it took him eight years to find a producer and get his music out. Ask him why and he says, “I kept my writing and music very confidential because even though I had a fond passion for it, I didn't feel that I was there yet. I knew I sounded bad, and my accent was heavier. It didn't sound appropriate for the format. I knew my delivery wasn't as good and my breath control wasn't great. There was a lot of scope for improvement. If I'm going to go out there and tell everybody that this is what I'm going to do, then I better be good at it. And that's why it was eight years of just refining.”

And it was actually Salman’s advice that nudged him: “One night, we were all in Panvel and the family was just chilling. I happened to perform this one song that was from my EP. It was just a hook then, not the whole song and he really liked it. He asked me what will you do hiding it? Perform for everybody, sing for everybody, so you can get everybody's opinion because there'll be a lot of people who will tell you it's nice and don't think so. There'll be a lot of people who think it's nice and will not tell you so. All you have to do is make sure that you keep pushing yourself and letting people know that this is it. You will keep learning and growing, and you will keep getting better. The element of people telling you how they feel, what they think is the next element that you need to embrace.”