About
To revive, research and innovate music as a driver of change; to create platforms for folk musicians enabling documentation, digital presence, copyright protection and sustainable livelihoods.
Anahad Foundation is a Section 8 non-profit organisation founded in 2013 by Abhinav Agrawal, dedicated to the recognition, preservation and evolution of India's folk and classical music traditions. Its primary mechanism is the Backpack Studio -- a mobile recording unit that takes professional production technology directly to folk artists in their communities, recording tracks and music videos free of cost. To date, the Foundation has built digital presence for more than 6,000 folk artists across five Indian states. Its EQUALS documentary series (7 episodes, featuring Grammy and Padma Shri awardees) was produced for JioCinema and won the International Documentary Association (IDA) Jury Award. The Foundation is also developing a digital archive and copyrighting folk compositions to protect artist intellectual property.
Abhinav Agrawal grew up learning classical music in Bulandshahr, east of Delhi, with folk artists as his mentors. He was struck by their shared dream of releasing recordings -- a desire blocked by the cost of professional production. The inciting moment came when he helped Salim Khan, founder of Jaisalmer Beats, write and record his first original song in 2017, and the resulting digital release brought the artist recognition he had never previously received. Word spread within the folk community and Agrawal formed Anahad Foundation to scale the model. The Backpack Studio was developed in collaboration with Grammy-winner Gael Hedding and supported by Dolby technology -- a professional-grade mobile recording kit that can be deployed anywhere. The EQUALS documentary series brought this story to a national audience on JioCinema, featuring artists from Rajasthan, Manipur, Bengal and other folk traditions, including Grammy and Padma Shri awardees.
Founding & Leadership
Abhinav Agrawal grew up learning classical music in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. His formative training was with folk musicians, whose inability to access professional recording sparked the Anahad model. He developed the Backpack Studio concept in collaboration with Grammy-winner Gael Hedding.
Initiatives & Portfolio
Mobile recording unit providing professional audio-video production to folk artists free of cost in their communities. Developed with Grammy-winner Gael Hedding and Dolby-supported technology.
7-episode documentary series on JioCinema featuring Grammy and Padma Shri awardee folk artists. Won IDA (International Documentary Association) Jury Award.
Registering folk compositions in artists' names to protect intellectual property and prevent appropriation.
Building India's largest repertoire of folk music with audio-video documentation. 6,000+ artists listed on the portal.
Online directory connecting folk artists with audiences and booking opportunities.
Anahad Foundation addresses a structural gap in India's cultural ecosystem: the invisibility of folk musicians to documentation, digital distribution, intellectual property protection and economic sustainability. Its Backpack Studio model is operationally innovative -- it reverses the usual model of bringing artists to production facilities and instead takes production to artists. The 6,000+ artists documented represent a folk music archive with no equivalent in India. The copyright registration initiative is particularly significant: many folk musicians have historically had their compositions appropriated without credit or compensation.
[Atlas Perspective] CultureAtlas profiles Anahad Foundation as one of the most operationally innovative cultural organisations in India's folk music ecosystem. Its technology-led model has achieved documentation scale (6,000+ artists) that traditional field recording and archival methods could not. The EQUALS documentary's IDA Jury Award signals international recognition of both the work and the storytelling around it. CultureAtlas sees the Foundation's next phase -- copyright registration, digital distribution and artist economic empowerment -- as the most important work in India's folk music preservation landscape.