Darbuka Siva

Darbuka Siva is a famous self-taught Indian musician, drummer, percussionist, music producer, actor and radio jockey. He was born on 13th March 1982 in North Chennai. He was critically acclaimed for his musical projects "Yodhaka" and" La Pongal". Siva was seventeen when he started learning drums and percussion. His professional career began when he joined the Bengali Baul band "Okiyotaan" in 2002. It also meant the end of his college education as he had to skip exams to perform. In 2003, Siva formed his band with singer Tanvi Shah A versatile singer, Tanvi Shah is a playback singe >> Read More... called "Zahrra" which performed music from all over the world including Arabic, Cuban, African and South American.

He was one of the few who played the Darbuka and thus the moniker. Siva formed "Yodhaka" in 2005 as an experimental band that performed classical music with contemporary approach which soon evolved into Sanskrit shlokas layered with world music. In 2007 he joined Radio Mirchi where he hosted "Naatupura Beatu", a show on Tamil folk music which inspired Siva’s next project, La Pongal in 2010 a platform for contemporary folk music where traditional Tamil folk musicians performed alongside contemporary music. La Pongal released its first album in 2012 featuring over seventy musicians.

In 2012 he also worked on a music travelogue series on Pudhu Yugam Channel featuring music from musically rich parts of India particularly Rajasthan and Goa. He received TEDx Chennai Star Award and a fellowship with the Ink Fellows Program in the same year. In 2013 Siva took a short break which ended when "OneBea"t, a US Department project, selected him among twenty-five musicians for residency at Atlantic Center for Arts, Florida and a tour of the East Coast, US. In 2014, Siva played the role Nuisance Ganesh, a delusional news reporter for Radio City for a short period before signing the contract for his first film "Rajathandiram" as an actor.

In 2015 Siva commenced Darbuka Siva bro’ject where he expresses his state of mind through sound, visuals, collaborations, etc. In the same year, he debuted as an actor on "Rajathandiram" receiving critical acclaim for his role. In 2016, Siva returned to the US after receiving an invite for a month-long residency as a Facilitator-in Residence for the project. He released an album for the film " Kidaari Click to look into! >> Read More... " as a music composer in August 2016. In 2017, Siva was confirmed as the music composer of the upcoming film "Enai Noli Potham Totha", whose musical trailer created a buzz at New Year’s Eve.