Hyderabad-based Indie-Rock musician puts India on the map of rock music globally

Alluri, a Telugu singer-songwriter from Hyderabad, has made a name for himself globally in the indie rock music industry. Alluri’s father introduced him to Western classical music when he was young, but his love for Telugu music sets him apart from the crowd. Alluri is one of the few independent artists from Hyderabad and one of the first Indie Rock artists to sing in Telugu outside of India.

Alluri has always been passionate about music and paid close attention to whatever music genre he was exposed to, especially the lyrics. As a self-trained guitarist, he learned to play the instrument by listening to popular songs on television and looking up musical notes and chords on the internet. After trying to learn violin and piano, which he did not enjoy, Alluri started learning guitar at the age of 12. He learned the chords on his own by googling the chords for songs that he loved and played these chords while singing to himself. This is how he started playing music and continued for about ten years until he wrote his first song when he was around 23 or 24.

Alluri released his first album, The Man of Truth, in November 2016, which was critically acclaimed by the UK press, including Q Magazine, which awarded it 4 stars. The popularity of his songs led him to perform at various venues in India and the UK, including the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK, where he connected with the audience, even though his music is not folk music. Alluri collaborated with Glen Matlock, an English guitarist best known as a member of the Sex Pistols, after Matlock shared Alluri’s Telugu cover of the Sex Pistols song “Anarchy in the UK” on his official Twitter account. In 2018, Alluri performed with Glen Matlock at The Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai. Alluri’s second album, O Katha - Tales of This Telugu Man, achieved critical acclaim, and he addressed his self-confessed identity crisis in this record. Alluri recorded this album with Grammy-winning producer Tomasso Colliva, which was a milestone. Alluri continued collaborating with Glen Matlock and also roped in legendary guitarist Earl Slick, who played the guitar for David Bowie and John Lennon, for his album Gigaman, which is yet to be released.

Alluri wanted to relate as a different artist because he found writing songs in Telugu more part of his identity. Still, he also felt the need to write songs in English, which he collaborated with Glen Matlock and Earl Slick for Gigaman. The album is called ‘Gigaman,’ and Alluri recorded it in Wales. He wanted to release it as a separate artist, but the project is on hold until he finds the right label to release it. Until then, Alluri has also recorded a new album in January in the UK with Andy Burrows of Razorlight, who’s worked with Tom Odell, Katie Tunstall, and Ricky Gervais. Talking about it, Alluri, said, “We wrote some songs together last year in August, and then in January, we recorded a whole album in Frocester, UK.” The album includes songs in different languages, such as Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, and English. “So it is an album that I hope allows me to play in more parts of India than the Telugu album has allowed me to.”, he said.