He picked up the keys at the age of five, dr­eamt of becoming a classical concert pi­anist and finally got seduced by the im­provisations in jazz. Since 2016, An­urag Naidu has played with many we­ll-known musicians including Italian dr­­ummer Matteo Fraboni and Ameri­­c­an jazz vocalist Loretta Hollow­ay, who have performed in Mumbai. And now, his recently released debut album is making all the ri­g­ht noises. But, honing his sk­i­lls ha­sn't come easy, even th­ough one might like to be­lieve that being playback si­nger Shilpa Rao's brother would have helped.

Born in a family where his fa­t­her had earned a degree in Hindu­s­tani classical mu­sic but picked en­g­ineering as his career, Naidu only st­­a­rted learning the piano when Hari­haran, whom Shilpa was training un­der, su­ggested it. But Jamshedpur di­dn't ha­ve any teachers, so Naidu and his fa­ther would go on a five-hour train jo­urney to Kolkata every Sunday for a two-hour class.