Three names sit on the Spotify tile for Mohana, and for once every one of them is actually playing.

At 10:29 PM IST on 15 October 2026, Saroj Kashyap's Mohana, billed with Madhuri Seshadri and Ritwik Bhattacharya, was No. 7 on Fresh Finds India. It was not on Rock in India. When this desk first logged the playlist, on the morning of 13 October, Mohana was No. 2; it has held No. 7 in every snapshot since the list was reshuffled on 14 October. It is the title song of Mohana and friends, a three-song release out on 1 October, and both the record and its paperwork are more interesting than a tidy three-name tile suggests.

Mohana at a glance

  • Song: Mohana, the opening track of Mohana and friends (Apple Music lists it as Mohana and friends – Single, three songs)
  • Billed on Spotify: Saroj Kashyap, Madhuri Seshadri, Ritwik Bhattacharya
  • Titled on Apple Music: Mohana (feat. Madhuri Seshadri & Ritwik Bhattacharya), with Saroj Kashyap as the artist
  • Released: 1 October 2026; official video posted on YouTube on 8 October 2026
  • Length: 3:45
  • Apple Music genre tag: Pop
  • ℗ line: ℗ 2026 Saroj Kashyap
  • Fresh Finds India: No. 7 at 10:29 PM IST, 15 October 2026; not on Rock in India
  • Also on Fresh Finds India: Saroj Kashyap's solo single More Than Just Friends, at No. 37

Three names, three different jobs

In our piece on Indian indie collabs, we argued that the discovery tier has put the producer on the cover, and that the tile is not the master. Mohana tests that argument from an unusual angle, because the three names on its tile do three different jobs, and each store tells a different part of the story.

Start with the paperwork. Apple Music credits Saroj Kashyap as the only performer and as the writer of the lyrics and music. Ritwik Bhattacharya is credited as arranger and producer. A fourth name, Gopi Shravan, appears as arranger. Madhuri Seshadri, the second name on the tile, has no role in Apple's credits at all.

The fuller picture comes from the artist herself. The credits in the description of Saroj Kashyap's official YouTube video list vocals by Saroj Kashyap and Madhuri Seshadri, guitars by Ritwik Bhattacharya, kazoo by Madhuri Seshadri, kanjira and manjira by Gopi Shravan, and production, mix and master by Ritwik Bhattacharya. The song is "written and composed" by Saroj Kashyap.

So this is not the producer as decoration. Mohana is a genuine three-performer recording: a singer-songwriter, a second voice, and a producer who also plays every guitar. What the tile cannot show is the hierarchy. The song, the words and the master all belong to one person. The ℗ line reads Saroj Kashyap alone, which is exactly right for a self-released song she wrote. That is the shape our masters piece hoped artists would keep.

Why the second name matters

Then there are the audience numbers. At our check, Saroj Kashyap had 4.7K monthly listeners on Spotify. Madhuri Seshadri had 229.7K, nearly fifty times as many, and her most-played tracks on the service lean on Kannada film songs, among them Suryakanthi, from Tagaru Palya, billed with Vasuki Vaibhav and Daali Dhananjaya. The profile Spotify links for Ritwik Bhattacharya showed 0 monthly listeners at the same check.

That gap does not make the feature cynical. Madhuri Seshadri sings on the record and plays on it. But it explains why the guest is worth naming. Every billed artist brings their followers' Release Radar with them, and on a list that is hand-picked by editors, a familiar voice on the tile is not nothing.

The person the billing leaves out is Gopi Shravan. The kanjira, a South Indian frame drum at home on the Carnatic concert stage, and the manjira, small hand cymbals, are the instruments that most plainly tie this English-language pop song to the music its maker says she grew up around. Their player is on neither tile.

A partnership, not a guest spot

Ritwik Bhattacharya is not a new name in this catalogue. In July 2023, Rolling Stone India reported that he produced Saroj Kashyap's single Nargis, with flute by Arjun MPN, and quoted her on taking his advice to add the flute: "But knowing Ritwik, I trusted his instincts and [I'm] so glad I did." Nargis was billed to Saroj Kashyap alone. Three years later, the same partnership gets a name on the tile.

Readers of our Pineapple Express profile will also recognise the rhythm section. Press coverage of that Bengaluru band, from its 2018 debut EP Uplift onwards, names a guitarist Ritwik Bhattacharya, a drummer Gopi Shravan and a flautist Arjun MPN. Neither the stores nor the video credits mention the band, so we treat the shared names as a Bengaluru connection, not a documented credit.

What Mohana sounds like

Saroj Kashyap describes the release as "a state of mind. A state where past, present and future coexists." The artwork backs that up: a sepia group photograph of young men outside a temple, with "Mohana and friends" handwritten in blue ink beneath it.

The song itself, by its maker's account, is simpler. She calls Mohana "an out and out love song," and its hook is a song about a hook. In the 30-second preview Apple serves, a line we transcribed by machine as "You're the chorus that plays in my head" comes round twice, chased by "over and over." It is a love song that describes love as an earworm, and then behaves like one.

It is a clever conceit, and an honest one. The chorus is a statement of intent: this is a song built to loop, and the preview does nothing but loop it. The arrangement is the surprise, on paper at least. Kazoo, kanjira and manjira are not standard kit for English-language indie pop, and that instrument list says the record would rather be homemade and a little playful than glossy. The preview is loud and even: we measured about −10.9 LUFS integrated with a loudness range of 2.1 LU, and the pitch content centres on E major. These are desk measurements on a lossy 30-second clip, not the master.

At 3:45, Mohana runs half a minute past the 3:15 median we found for Fresh Finds India in our song length study. Whether that extra half minute earns its keep depends on how much you like the chorus, because everything about the song is built to keep coming back to it.

The Carnatic question

The title invites a reading. Mohanam, often called Mohana, is one of the best-loved five-note ragas in Carnatic music. The release never says the song is set in it, and our pitch read of the preview proves nothing either way. Saroj Kashyap's own notes are careful: Carnatic music "definitely had an impact on the way I cook and consume music," but "the intention was never to recreate that sound but to use it as a starting point."

We think that is the honest way to do it, and the rest of the release follows the same pattern. Gopala features Sakré, who, Apple says, arranged and produced it; we reviewed his EP with Galat Admi in Rosy Roti. Sumati features Srikrew, while Apple credits Soorya as its producer and Soorya and Ritwik Bhattacharya as arrangers. We could not confirm from the stores whether Srikrew and Soorya are the same person. Each song is one of Mohana's friends, and each brings a collaborator onto the tile.

Verdict

Mohana is three different records at once. In performance, it is a true three-artist record. In authorship and ownership, it is a solo record. And in marketing, it is a song with a well-known featured voice. All three are true, and none of them is a scandal.

What we would change is the paperwork. Apple Music should credit Madhuri Seshadri for the vocals and kazoo that the video's own credit list gives her, and Gopi Shravan, listed by Apple only as an arranger, deserves to be seen by more people than those who open a YouTube description. The video credits already treat this as a band. The store credits should too.

As a song, Mohana is one of the most likeable ideas in Fresh Finds India's top ten this week: a hook about a hook, an unusual instrument list, and a songwriter who knows exactly whose song it is.

FAQ

Who sings Mohana?

Saroj Kashyap sings lead and wrote the song. The credits on her official video add Madhuri Seshadri on vocals and kazoo. Apple Music lists Saroj Kashyap as the only performer.

Who produced Mohana by Saroj Kashyap?

Ritwik Bhattacharya. Apple Music credits him as producer and arranger, and the video credits add guitars, mixing and mastering. Gopi Shravan, who plays kanjira and manjira, is also credited as an arranger.

When was Mohana released?

On 1 October 2026, as the opening song of the three-track Mohana and friends release. The official video was posted on YouTube on 8 October 2026.

Is Mohana on Fresh Finds India?

Yes. It was No. 7 on Spotify's Fresh Finds India at 10:29 PM IST on 15 October 2026. Saroj Kashyap's More Than Just Friends was at No. 37. Mohana was not on Rock in India.

Is Mohana based on the Carnatic raga Mohanam?

The release does not say so. Saroj Kashyap writes that Carnatic music was a starting point for Mohana and friends, not a sound she set out to recreate.

Sources

Cover: Mohana and friends official artwork (℗ 2026 Saroj Kashyap), via Apple Music, shown in full and centred on a matching white field at 1200×630 with metadata stripped. Source: https://music.apple.com/in/album/mohana-and-friends-single/6818061534.

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