From desi to country

What's an Indian doing on a country music reality show? He's showing the world that the Nashville genre is really a state of mind

- Karishma Kuenzang

It all started one winter night in 2021, when Dhruv Visvanath, 31, received an email with bright red letters spelling out the words "This is not spam".

The Delhi musician thanks God for that. Because he almost deleted the email that informed him he had been selected to audition for Apple TV's new competitive music show, My Kind of Country, with musicians Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck as the judges or scouts.

"It was in the middle of the pandemic," says Visvanath, who would head to Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music, in January 2022. "It was 11 pm and I just screamed before telling my mom."

A major key

Visvanath, a fingerstyle guitarist and musician, was seven years old when his mother enrolled him for piano lessons. As a teen, he taught himself the guitar. In 2015, he quit his job and became a full-time musician, releasing his debut album, Orion, followed by The Lost Cause in 2018.

In his near decade-long music career, Visvanath rarely auditioned for competitions. This opportunity felt right. My Kind of Country was being made by Reese Witherspoon's studio Hello Sunshine, which had made The Morning Show, Daisy Jones and the Six and other popular series.

"What was really important was being heard and seen," says Visvanath. "I wanted to be seen by world and I wanted the world to see what I am capable of. When I met the producers, it felt like the right opportunity.