MUMBAI: The country’s favourite lungi clad multilingual folk music band will return to Mumbai for a special performance in the city with Red Bull. Red Bull would present The Raghu Dixit Project, at K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering, on 9 February. The band will play at the college festival, Symphony, along with opening act Mali featuring Tejas.

Widely hailed as India’s biggest cultural and musical export, over the years the band has seen some of the finest musicians in the country collaborate with Raghu Dixit and give his songs their unique flavour. The band music has earned them a loyal fan base across the country and beyond, which has only grown exponentially year on year. From playing for over 100,000 people in his home state of Karnataka, to slots at every major music festival in the country, to playing at Glastonbury festival in the UK, to BBC, to the show Later with Jools Holland, to even a historic concert for the Queen of England and the Royal Family, Raghu Dixit has already accomplished a phenomenal amount in a career that spans less than 15 years.

Currently, the band is working on releasing a few singles over the next few months, while front-man Raghu Dixit is also working on film projects in the south, including Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu films. Later in February, the band will set off for a massive tour of the UK, with stops in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Manchester and Cambridge, among other cities.

Opening for The Raghu Dixit Project on the night is Mali featuring Tejas, a collaborative project between singer-songwriters Mali, aka Maalavika Manoj, and Tejas, aka Tejas Menon.

A Mumbai-based singer-songwriter, Mali’s tunes capture the authenticity of classic pop from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Her debut EP Rush, recorded live with a number of hugely talented musicians from the Indian independent scene, embraces the kind of warm, raw, analog sounds that are rarely heard in contemporary pop today. A storyteller as much as a musician, Mali’s songs are inspired by people, both those closest to her and those she has encountered and have impacted her.

Tejas is a pop-rock artist from Mumbai, whose music has brought together a community of people who appreciate that a singer-songwriter does not need to be defined by a single genre, but a variety of sounds and landscapes that Tejas now uses to define his own signature sound.

Whether it’s a four piece horn section, synthesizers, heavy guitars or just a single acoustic guitar, Tejas’ musical adventures have taken him to places that have allowed him to push well past his creative limits, all while keeping one foot firmly in pop-rock. He has performed at some of the biggest music festivals in India, including NH7 Weekender, Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and Mahindra Blues Festival.