Asha Puthli - The North Star for South Asian Artists

How Asha Puthli’s Art Hitchhikes Across the Spectrum

Asha Puthli’s story, in 2025, is no longer just about being the first globalised Indian star, the muse for Andy Warhol, or the genre‑smashing trailblazer who carved her own path.

Instead, it’s become a roadmap for creative survival and, indeed, thriving against the odds. Whether she’s recording with the Gorillaz in the United States or playing Le Guess Who? Festival in the Netherlands with Madboy Mink, there is a consensus amongst her admirers that she “absolutely radiates love”.

Her enduring imprint across art forms is mapped anew by a constellation of collaborators determined to re‑centre her storied breathy soprano on the global stage.

The Renaissance of a Bombay Girl

Asha’s recent sold-out shows and five-star reviews in London have introduced her music to younger audiences, while thrilling longtime fans after the 40-year hiatus. “I’ve never really done too many live concerts in the past,” she shares. “Back in the day, I’d usually be singing over backing tracks. I started my first global tour with a live band last year at 79, which took me to so many different shores. In Australia, I had the audience singing my lyrics back at me!”

“Asha is a rare true original artist,” says Sweety Kapoor, Asha’s manager, who hosted the first event reintroducing Asha to UK audiences in 2023 under her ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’ series. “From opera, Indian classical, jazz, space disco, psychedelic rock to electronica; she’s always been a pioneering force who’s ahead of her time. A fashion icon, actor, and cultural trailblazer, she’s carved a legacy that is timeless and futuristic; and she’s still leading the way for others to follow!”

Even as Asha merrily recalls to me stories of soon-to-be divorced couples fighting over her records and shares fondly the overwhelmed reactions from Glastonbury and We Out Here festivals, she notes, “Bombay is my heartbeat. I’m a Bombay girl through and through, and returning to tour India and perform in Bombay again would truly be a special homecoming for me.”

The Re-issues, Multitracks, and Seasons of Asha’s Music

Mr Bongo records from Brighton, UK, kicked off the recent resurgence of Asha’s music from 2020 with their landmark re-issues of Asha’s albums and a special compilation.

Across the Atlantic, Naya Beat , founded by seasoned cratediggers Raghav Mani and Filip Nikolic, were bringing the patient precision of archaeologists to their work of excavating forgotten music. ‘Chipko Chipko’ was the track they unearthed during their work on Naya Beat Volume 1: South Asian Dance and Electronic Music 1983-1992 that brought about their very first conversation with Asha Puthli.

On Zoom during the pandemic, no less.

They discovered that Hari Om, a cassette album recorded in Bombay, was in its entirety an album on the Chipko Aandolan centring ecofeminism and indigenous rights; inspired to unravel the finer details of her career, the duo made a trip to Miami, Florida, to get down to work digging.

The remix album Disco Mystic – Select Remixes Vol 1 was born, for which they tasked producers like Jitwam and Maurice Fulton with the delicate art of, as Filip put it, staying respectful to the original disco essence of her tracks while shaping the remixes for modern dancefloors.

Asha Puthli fashion portrait in white gown

A Trailblazer for the Generations to Come

“She’s a punk, a rockstar, and a feminist who’s the poster child for globalised artists defying conventions across the board,” says Raghav. “An underrepresented artist in any capacity — be it gender, race, or genre — would see themselves reflected in Asha’s journey, because she really was the first one to do it all.” Shruti Ganguly, the director of the documentary on Asha tentatively titled ‘Asha Puthli: Taking Space’, concurs. “We’re still in the process of looking through archival material and digitising it,” Shruti shares. “Working with a mixture of verité footage, interviews, animations and graphics, we’re creating a real technicolor adventure with depth; with breathing space left for the messiness and challenges of life, love, and family to also exist in the story. Asha is a veritable North Star for South Asian artists everywhere, including myself.”

Live concert performance by Asha Puthli and band on stage

Interplanetary Music: From ‘Space Talk’ to ‘Moon Cave’

Imaad Shah of Madboy Mink zeroes in on ‘Space Talk’ as the first track he heard by Asha, along with ‘Right Down Here’ and ‘Lies’ , two JJ Cale covers of hers that he’s grown to love deeply.

“In 2018, Asha gave a Red Bull Music Academy lecture , after which our full 8-piece band including Saba Azad and I had the chance to join her onstage and perform a short set at G5A in Bombay,” he tells us. “The way the audience reacted to the all-Asha tracklist was overwhelming and so full of love! It was just incredible to perform alongside an icon like her at Le Guess Who? as well. We had already started exploring space disco when I found Asha’s music, but her work floored me and shaped the way our band looked at the genre of disco.”

A Magnetic Performer

“Watching her live is what I call the Asha Effect,” Sweety Kapoor smiles. “A magnetic performer and storyteller with an exchange of energy that pulls audiences into her orbit, reminding you why she’s one of our greatest treasures and all-time greats, reinventing herself to this day.”

Asha Puthli’s disco-jazz anthem ‘Space Talk’ was, in 2009, transmitted into deep space to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Fifteen years later, she returns there with an admirable roster in tow including Dave Jolicoeur (of De la Soul) and Black Thought (of The Roots) on ‘The Moon Cave’ with Damon Albarn, off the Gorillaz’s new album ‘Parvat’ (The Mountain).

The Asha Effect

“Asha’s voice has always been able to capture listeners no matter the context,” Mazen Almaskati, one half of Dar Disku , tells us.

“I recall the moment she was recording a few ad libs for ‘Baar Baar’ in the studio and we played it back through the monitors for the first time,” collaborator Vish M says. “Everyone in the room just started erupting because of how special it sounded. I still get goosebumps thinking about it, that was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Honours, Heritage, and the Humble Icon

For someone whose entire career has been imbued with irreverence and revelry in equal measure, Asha carries the lore surrounding her lightly. Earlier this year, she became the first South Asian woman to be inducted into the Women Singer-Songwriters Hall of Fame in Washington (“So re-energising, especially since women songwriters have always played second fiddle!”) and is all set to be honoured at Blank Forms’ annual benefit gala in New York as 2025 draws to a close.

“I’m thrilled that I’ve been getting all this recognition,” she beams. “But I also feel a sense of wonder and surprise sometimes — for being included in the Grammy Museum (along with Pandit Ravi Shankar) in celebration of pioneering artists in LA called ‘Musicians without Borders’, or the ongoing exhibition at the New York Historical Museum, which is on the history of the sari. My album cover is next to that of Miles Davis’! In its entirety, the exhibition showcases the deep influence that people of colour and South Asians have had on the cultural landscape of New York City.”

“Of course, I used to hike my sari up to make it nice and short in the 70’s,” she chuckles. “I used to love styling it without a choli, just like the Toda tribals of the Nilgiris. My aunt, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, taught Gloria Steinem how to drape a sari and the two used to meet to study the peaceful protest tactics used in India’s independence movement. Ms. Steinem actually later went on to include many of those strategies into the 1970s feminist movement in the United States. But maybe I’ll save that story for another day.” She laughs and says goodbye, leaving behind the warm afterglow of her inimitable presence.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of Jameson Connects.

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About the author

Aditi Dharmadhikari

Aditi is an independent writer, editor, and communications consultant for purpose-based organisations. She kicked off her career in Bombay as a culture writer writing about music, alternative culture, and gender; today, she works in impact storytelling, advising a diverse clientele in stories that most represent them. You can check out more of Aaditi’s work at Noughtsandcrosses.in