One minute, one song every day: Veena player Rajhesh Vaidhya’s hit series features snippets of film songs

Veena player Rajhesh Vaidhya, who recently completed 1,000 posts of his snappy musical series Do You Have A Minute, will soon debut as a film composer

“Do not play cinema songs. Play the keerthanais that you were taught first before attempting other things,” Rajhesh Vaidhya’s father used to tell him when he was a child, trying to master the nuances of the veena.

Whenever his father stepped out, a young Rajhesh would try playing a film number. “My first attempt was Ilaiyaraaja’s ‘Pani Vizhum’ (Ninaivellam Nithya). I was so obsessed with that tune that I would long for the few minutes when my dad was not around, to try and play that number,” beams Rajhesh, as he narrates this anecdote at his Ashok Nagar residence.

That fascination continues till date. Today, Rajhesh is the go-to veena player for leading music composers. Apart from his multiple live concerts in the December music season, he is currently thrilled about two things: completing a thousand episodes of his popular Do You Have A Minute series on social media, and turning music composer for a Tamil film.