Bollywood music composer and producer Abhijit Vaghani, a creative force behind numerous Hindi film songs across a career spanning 27 years, says he has no favourite genre — and considers that a professional strength rather than an absence of identity.

A Playlist Without Borders

Speaking at his studio in Andheri West, Mumbai, Vaghani explained that his listening habits are deliberately wide-ranging. 'Actually, in Bollywood, there is no go-to genre. Even if you see my playlist, my playlist is also mixed of everything possible. It also has different unnamed artistes, I don't even know some of their names because I enjoy listening to so many different genres and artistes that I get lost in that discovery of music and artistes,' he said.

He added that this cross-genre immersion directly informs how he approaches composition. For him, the inability to name a single preferred style is not indecision — it is method.

How Genre Diversity Shapes His Compositions

Vaghani described a structured creative process in which he auditions multiple genres before settling on a direction for any given track. 'The tempos are different for each genre. To create that first track for that particular composition, I have to try out 3-4 genres. So, in that, I get used to making everyone good,' he said.

This approach, he noted, is shaped by the demands of Bollywood itself, where every project arrives with its own emotional register, scale, and pace. 'In every situation, everyone's tempo, scale, everything is different. And to select a certain genre for it, we have to go through a lot of genres,' he explained.

One Exception: Vocal Melodic House

While Vaghani resists pinning himself to any single sound, he did acknowledge one genre that holds a special place in his personal listening. 'I love listening to house, which is a vocal melodic house. I love listening to those kinds of genres, a bit more — but other than that, I don't have a preference,' he said.

The distinction is telling: even his stated preference is a listening pleasure rather than a compositional default, underscoring how consciously he separates what he enjoys from what a project requires.

What This Means for His Creative Output

Vaghani's philosophy reflects a broader reality of working in mainstream Hindi cinema, where composers are routinely expected to move between romantic ballads, dance numbers, folk-inflected tracks, and background scores within a single film. Maintaining a fluid, genre-agnostic ear is, in that context, less a personal quirk and more an occupational necessity.

With 27 years of Bollywood credits behind him, Vaghani shows no sign of narrowing his sonic range — and by his own account, that breadth is precisely what keeps his work relevant.