A MUSICAL JOURNEY
Zindagi Kya hai was the first music video , shot and edited by Nitish Pires in 2004
BREAKING THE SARHADEIN
In 2007, Nitish stepped forward as a solo artist with Sarhadein—a Hindi rock record built around the idea of breaking boundaries, both musical and personal. Contemporary coverage described it as an attempt to challenge the assumption that Indian rock needed to be sung in English. The record also brought together notable creative collaborators, with lyrics credited to writers including Piyush Mishra and Sandeep Nath. (Business Of Cinema)
At the same time, another career was quietly developing behind the scenes.
Nitish became a working music producer, eventually creating music for more than 200 television advertising projects, with his professional credits spanning major brands and broadcasters. He also composed the score and songs for the Hindi feature film Soch Lo. (Waves Film Bazaar)
Yet commercial work never replaced the independent artist.
If anything, it financed his freedom.
THE JOURNEY — FROM A GUITAR AND A DREAM TO MUSIC, CINEMA AND THE WORLD
Some careers are planned.
Some are manufactured.
Nitish Pires' journey was neither.
It was built through curiosity, risk, reinvention and an almost stubborn belief that an independent artist did not have to wait for somebody else's permission to create.
His story began around 1998–99, when a young Nitish picked up the guitar and began the journey that would eventually lead to the formation of Nakshatra, his first professional rock band. By 2003, the band had released Gulfam through Universal Music, with its songs written and composed by Nitish. (ReverbNation)
But an experience that could have been the destination became the beginning of something much bigger.
The realities of the music business taught him an early lesson: getting signed did not necessarily mean being heard. Rather than allowing that frustration to end the dream, Nitish began learning how to do more himself.
And almost accidentally, the musician began becoming a filmmaker.
When professional music videos were beyond his means, he borrowed a handycam. He filmed. He edited. He made mistakes. Then he edited again. What began around 2001 as a practical necessity slowly became a second creative language. By 2008, he was directing music videos and writing film scripts—years before anyone would know where that curiosity would eventually lead. (Mid-Day)
THE ROAD BECAME THE STAGE
Then came one of the defining chapters of the Nitish Pires story.
In 2010, instead of waiting for the industry to take his music across India, he decided to take the music to India himself.
Nitish embarked on an extraordinary independent rock tour covering approximately 15,000 kilometres and 25 cities, travelling with his music and performing at colleges, malls and public spaces. The idea was bigger than promoting an album. He called the initiative “Make Way For The Indian Rock Bands”—an attempt to prove that independent Indian musicians could create their own stage rather than wait to be given one. (Hindustan Times)
The tour became part road trip, part concert tour and part statement of independence.
There was something prophetic about it.
Years before today's creator economy made self-promotion normal, Nitish was already travelling across the country doing exactly that—taking the artist directly to the audience.
The album he carried with him was Chauraha.
FROM THE ROAD TO GIMA
Chauraha went on to receive a nomination for Best Rock Album at the Global Indian Music Academy Awards (GIMA), placing De Nitish Pires Band alongside established Indian rock names including Euphoria, Advaita and Sky Rabbit. (Highonscore | The Score Magazine)
For an album that Nitish had fought to take directly to listeners himself, the recognition carried a special meaning.
The independent road had led to one of India's major music platforms.
His music and performances would over the years also find their way onto platforms associated with MTV Indies, Artist Aloud and IIFA, while his live journey expanded across India and beyond.
But that little success did not stop Nitish from walking—or riding—away from the familiar.
Quite literally.
SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GET LOST
Travel became another turning point.
Nitish undertook an approximately 3,500-kilometre bicycle journey from southern India towards the north, meeting people and collecting experiences along the way. He subsequently travelled internationally, including through Russia and Europe.
These were not simply holidays between albums.
They became part of the songwriting.
In interviews years later, Nitish described how encounters, places and small incidents from these journeys returned to him when he began composing again. (Heavy Music Magazine)
He came back carrying stories.
Those stories became Am I Evil.
Released in 2018, the ten-track English-language rock album was written, composed, arranged and produced by Nitish, and took his independent music beyond India. International rock publications began reviewing and interviewing an artist whose songs had grown from experiences collected across countries and cultures. (Nitish Pires)
Once again, the pattern repeated itself:
Travel became experience.
Experience became story.
Story became music.
But another transformation had already begun.
FROM SOUND TO VISION
For years, the camera had existed alongside the guitar.
What had started with a borrowed handycam had grown into serious study of cinematography, editing, post-production and visual effects. From around 2016 onward, Nitish increasingly worked professionally across music videos, advertisements and film as a director, cinematographer and editor. (Waves Film Bazaar)
During time spent in Russia in 2017, surrounded by musicians, filmmakers and other artists, an idea that had followed him for years became clearer:
Perhaps independence did not have to stop at music.
If he could write, compose, record and produce his own songs, why couldn't the same philosophy be taken into cinema?
The answer would eventually become his most ambitious independent creation.
AND THE STORY CONTINUES...
Today, Nitish Pires stands at an unusual intersection.
Musician. Singer-songwriter. Guitarist. Composer. Producer. Performer. Director. Cinematographer. Editor. Storyteller.
But perhaps the titles matter less than the thread connecting them.
For more than two decades, the journey has repeatedly returned to the same idea:
Don't wait for the perfect opportunity.
Create with what you have.
Learn what you don't know.
Take the road nobody gives you.
A record label couldn't define the journey.
So he took his music across India himself.
A conventional studio couldn't contain his experiences.
So he travelled and turned the world into songs.
A film crew and massive budget once seemed beyond reach.
So he learned the camera, editing, cinematography and filmmaking—and eventually made Vaimanik.
From a young musician beginning his journey around 1998–99, to an independent Hindi rock album reaching GIMA, from thousands of kilometres travelled in search of people and stories, to Am I Evil finding international rock audiences, and finally to a self-driven feature film reaching IFFI—
the milestones may belong to different worlds.
But the journey behind them is the same.
A guitar gave him a voice.
A camera gave that voice a vision.
And independence gave him the freedom to use both.
The journey of Nitish Pires has never been about choosing between music and cinema.
It has been about finding every possible way to tell a story.
And it is still being written.
VAIMANIK — THE DREAM TAKES FLIGHT
Years later, back in Goa, fragments of childhood memory began turning into a story.
A little boy.
A fisherman's family.
The dream of flying.
And memories of Nitish's own childhood, when his mother would take him and his brother to watch aeroplanes from afar.
From those fragments emerged Vaimanik (The Pilot), a feature-length Konkani film set against 1960s Goa. (IndulgExpress)
What made the project remarkable was not only the story.
It was how it was made.
Nitish took responsibility for an extraordinary range of the film's creative process—writing, directing, cinematography, editing and music among them. Industry documentation from Film Bazaar credits him across writer, director, editor, music and director-of-photography roles. (Waves Film Bazaar)
The musician who once borrowed a handycam because he could not afford to have someone make his music video had, more than two decades later, created a feature film through many of the skills he had taught himself along the way.
And then came the moment that brought the journey full circle.
On 26 November 2025, Vaimanik was presented at the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The official IFFI programme lists the 136-minute Konkani feature in its Gala Premiere programme with Nitish Pires as director. (IFFI Goa)
A small independent creation had reached one of India's most prestigious cinema stages.
The boy with the guitar had become the man behind the camera.
And somehow, neither had replaced the other.
