Antariksh’s Varun Rajput On Iltija, Jack Gardiner And The Future Of Indian Rock: 'Most Meaningful Things...' | Exclusive

Published 27 June 2026 · india

Antariksh’s Varun Rajput On Iltija, Jack Gardiner And The Future Of Indian Rock: 'Most Meaningful Things...' | Exclusive Reported By, Last Updated: June 27, 2026

Antariksh’s Varun Rajput On Iltija, Jack Gardiner And The Future Of Indian Rock: 'Most Meaningful Things...' | Exclusive Reported By, Last Updated: June 27, 2026, 16:25 IST Antariksh’s Varun Rajput talks about Rehguzar, Iltija, Jack Gardiner, global collaborations and why Indian rock must enter a wider conversation. Rapid Read In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Antariksh’s Varun Rajput opens up about Rehguzar, Iltija, Jack Gardiner and taking Indian rock global. Antariksh’s music has always sounded like it is trying to outrun a boundary. Not in the noisy, self-conscious way bands sometimes chase reinvention, but with the stubbornness of a restless mind that refuses to accept that Indian rock must choose between distortion and tradition, between a guitar riff and a raag, between the anthemic rush of the West and the inward pull of home. For Varun Rajput, the band’s frontman and creative force, that search sharpened into something deeply personal in the summer of 2024, during one of those private reckoning moments when an artist sits alone and asks an uncomfortable question: where do I go from here? The answer became Rehguzar, a 12-song concept album that Antariksh is unfolding gradually through 2026. At one level, it is an album about artists, creators, entrepreneurs and anyone foolish or brave enough to choose the road less travelled. At another, it is Varun’s own emotional ledger, written from lived experience rather than borrowed romanticism. It understands that resilience is not always a grand, chest-thumping act. Sometimes, it is just returning to the work when anger feels easier, lowering the ego when applause has not arrived, and continuing to build when the world has already moved on to the next shiny distraction. That philosophy sits at the heart of Iltija, Antariksh’s latest chapter from Rehguzar. The song is framed as a quiet conversation with oneself, a plea to choose humility, focus and inner steadiness over rage and noise. But quiet, in Antariksh’s universe, does not mean small. The track begins with vulnerability, gathers muscle through anthemic choruses and finally tears open through a blistering guitar section by Jack Gardiner, the British virtuoso whose playing gives the song its storm before the storm. Gardiner does not understand Hindi, just as Marty Friedman and Jakub Zytecki did not when they entered Antariksh’s world before him. Yet, across these collaborations, something more primal than language seems to have travelled. Mood, ache, chaos, surrender, ascent. The things music knows before words interfere. It is not accidental that guitar legends from different corners of the world have found themselves drawn to Antariksh’s orbit. Marty Friedman on Quest, Jakub Zytecki on Naaqis and now Jack Gardiner on Iltija do not merely decorate the band’s songs with international muscle. They widen the room. They place Indian rock on a larger map without sanding away its grain. For Varun, these collaborations are not vanity stamps. They are proof that specificity can travel. That a Hindi rock song can hold its own beside global virtuosity. That Indian rock need not be a niche curiosity, but can step into the broader global conversation with the same confidence that Bloodywood has brought to Indian metal. What makes Antariksh compelling is that its fusion never feels like a tourist brochure with distortion pedals. The band does not add Hindustani or Carnatic phrases merely to announce Indianness, nor does it lean on rock and electronic textures just to sound modern. Varun’s process begins with a riff, a progression or a lyrical idea, not with the obligation to fuse. If a song calls for sarangi, as Naaqis did, it enters. If a moment demands clean guitar over sarod, as Iltija did, the guitar stays. That instinctive refusal to force-fit is perhaps why the band’s sound feels lived-in rather than assembled. It carries Indian classical memory, Western rock architecture, pop immediacy and electronic sheen, but its real foundation is the old rock instinct: be fearless, be honest, and do not obey convention simply because it has been repeated loudly enough. In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, Antariksh’s Varun Rajput opens up about the deeply personal origin of Rehguzar, why the album is being released song by song, how Iltija became a metaphor for lowering one’s ego and returning to the work, what Jack Gardiner brought to the track, why collaborations with Marty Friedman, Jakub Zytecki and Gardiner have pushed Indian rock onto a wider stage, the discipline behind making fusion feel organic, the band’s US tour, opening for Gardiner in Delhi, and why Rehguzar is ultimately a reminder that meaningful journeys are rarely clean, quick or convenient, but always worth walking.