What happens when someone you once met, lost touch with and never expected to see again walks back into your life? For musicians Sanjeeta Bhattacharya and Raag Sethi, it became the story behind their first song together — and, eventually, their life together.
Sanjeeta, the Grammy-nominated singer and actor known for her work with the Berklee Indian Ensemble, international festival performances and her acting debut in Jawan (2023), brings her distinctive vocals to the track. Sanjeeta and Raag first met in 2019 and spent a day together before losing touch. Now newlyweds, the independent musicians have released ‘Phir Se’, the first single from their upcoming EP Dear Diary .
An intimate acoustic pop-folk track, the song traces an unlikely journey of reconnection, second chances and finding love when you least expect it. Raag, a composer, Grammy-voting member and founder of Compass Box Studio, takes on production, arrangement, mastering and guitars. At the heart of Phir Se is a story that is deeply personal to the couple. What followed was a friendship that quickly turned into love — and, within days, conversations about marriage. The song itself began much more casually. She’s incredibly instinctive and fearless as an artist and often pushes me to hear or approach things differently. Now that we’re partners in life too, there’s an even greater honesty in the way we work. We can challenge each other, disagree, laugh about it, and still know we’re working towards the same thing. I feel very lucky that I get to have that kind of creative freedom with her that only comes with being best friends. ”
Years later, they reconnected in March last year.
The 2026–27 Dear Diary EP Tour is a chance to bring this new music and the stories behind it back to the stage. ” The Dear Diary EP is set to arrive soon, followed by the announcement of the Dear Diary India Tour 2026–27 . The tour will build on Sanjeeta’s 11-city Dear Diary tour in 2025, bringing the new songs and the stories behind them to the stage. Dates are yet to be announced.
“It literally started with a tiny guitar motif that Raag recorded on my phone while he was ‘noodling’ around. I decided to write over it and the first thing that came to mind was us- when we were just getting to know each other. I was listening to a lot of MARO’s music at the time, which influenced the harmonies and phrasing. We wanted the production to feel organic, built around acoustic guitars, upright bass and vocals, with almost everything recorded rather than programmed. We were drawing from folk, jazz and acoustic pop while trying to create something fresh. I initially wrote it in English, but midway through, we brought Abhin Joshi in to help shape it in Hindi. ” Lyrics for Phir Se are by Abhin Joshi and Sanjeeta, while the composition is by Sanjeeta and Raag. The track features keys by Nayan Kapadiya and drums by Jyotirmay Menon, and is mixed by Protyay Chakraborty. For Sanjeeta, the song is more than a musical collaboration. It captures a chapter of her life she had never imagined would unfold. “It felt like this person had come back into my life and changed it in the most beautiful way – a story that deserved not just one song, but an entire album. Phir Se is a snapshot of some of the best days of our lives. There’s something incredibly exhilarating about turning your own life into music and getting to relive it through a song. The creative chemistry between the two, however, predates their relationship. They had already built a friendship and musical understanding before reconnecting romantically. For Raag, that familiarity became an important part of their creative process. “What’s special about working with Sanjeeta is the trust we’ve always had creatively. I knew her as a musician and friend long before I knew her as my wife so there was already a deep understanding when we reconnected years later. Phir Se is only the beginning. It is the first release from Dear Diary , a four-track EP that moves across Hindi, English, Bengali and Spanish while exploring different shades of love — from losing it and finding it to beginning again. “Phir Se is about reconnection and second chances and finding love when you least expect it. Musically, each song has its own world: acoustic folk-pop, Balkan folk, waltz, Portuguese fado and Bengali folk, all with our own twists. We wanted the record to be an honest amalgamation of our influences, but above all, we made it for the joy of creating together. Dear Diary initially began as an intimate live experience built around storytelling and a direct connection with audiences before growing into a larger body of work. “Our travels and experiences naturally found their way into the music. Dear Diary began as an intimate live experience built around storytelling and a genuine connection with the audience. As it evolved into an EP, we wanted to keep that intimacy while allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, raw and experimental.
Some of the music took shape while the couple was travelling and touring together last year.
And perhaps there is no better invitation into this new chapter than Sanjeeta’s own words: “Bring your diary. Let’s write this new chapter together. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test Get the latest Lifestyle News and more. Download the TOI app.