The genesis of the musical relationship that Anurag Shanker and Namit Das formed with each other goes back to the time that they were working on the sets of the cult indie film Sulemani Keeda in 2014. Shanker was composing music for the movie. Das had been enlisted to sing a few of the tracks. "And since we had a great vibe going, we decided to join forces," Shanker says.

Now, Das comes from a family of proficient musicians. "So, we found a body of unreleased recordings lying around in his house, thanks to his grandfather, father and uncle, apart from some great writing by pre-Partition poets such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz. And we thought, ‘Why not revive these classics without selling out, as had become the case with a lot of Indian classical music over the years?’" Shanker says.