How To Build A Pop Universe, With One-Day Shoots, Telenovelas And A Cat Named Sushi, By Indie Artist Noush!
Long before cameras started rolling, Noush! tells ETV Bharat she already knew exactly what the music video for Snakes and Ladders should feel like.
Published : July 8, 2026 at 12:58 PM IST
There comes a point in every artist's career when they have to answer the modern question: “Who am I on the internet?” For Mumbai singer-songwriter and producer Noush! (pronounced now-sh), the answer arrived after years of being mistaken for someone else. Imagine waking up to congratulatory messages because another musician has announced a world tour. Or finding yourself tagged every time somebody else's sitar makes headlines. At one point, even her parents received messages intended for another artist.
“The confusion was real,” laughs Noush!, who until recently released music under her birth name, Anoushka Sivasankar. “People would tag me whenever something happened to Anoushka Shankar. My parents would get congratulated when she announced a tour. It actually happened!”
Human Exclamation Mark
It's difficult to build your own musical identity when Google's first instinct is to introduce you to somebody else's career. So Anoushka became Noush! No, the punctuation isn't a branding gimmick. “I've always been called Noush by my friends and family,” she says over the phone from her home in Mumbai. “And the exclamation mark is just... me. I feel everything very deeply. If I'm happy, I'm really happy. If I'm sad, I'm really sad. I'm basically a human exclamation mark.”
The timing couldn't have been better. Her latest upbeat single, Snakes and Ladders, is also the first release under the new name. A song that spent three years refusing to become finished before finally making peace with itself. Or perhaps more accurately, before finally letting Noush! make peace with it. “The funny thing is,” she says, “I wrote it in one day. I produced most of it in one day.” The next three were another story.
“I kept comparing the journey of the song Snakes and Ladders to the game itself. Sometimes I felt like I was climbing a ladder and making progress. Then suddenly I'd be bitten by a snake and be right back where I started.” Every time she thought the song was complete, it called her back. “There were still missing pieces.”
Eventually, collaborator Ramon Ibrahim became the second pair of ears the song desperately needed. “When you're so consumed by something, you stop being able to zoom out,” she says. It's an honest admission. Artists often pretend inspiration arrives fully formed, like a microwave meal that only needs two minutes on high. Noush! happily admits that sometimes you need someone else to tell you where the furniture should go. The song finally arrived. The music video (directed by Aditi Sivaraman), however, had other plans.
Life According To A Telenovela
Long before cameras started rolling, Noush! already knew exactly what the video should feel like. Not minimalist. She wanted a telenovela. “I grew up watching Indian soap operas and telenovelas,” she says. “They've influenced everything I do.” It makes perfect sense once she explains it. Bollywood doesn't treat songs as promotional add-ons. Songs are written for the story. They belong inside the narrative. “I wanted my music video to feel like that.”
The result is gloriously pop-art, colourful and knowingly cheeky. The remarkable part is that it was shot in a single day, which sounds impressive until you hear what actually happened: Equipment failed, scenes had to be abandoned, ideas disappeared because there simply wasn't enough time.
“We just kept asking ourselves, 'Do we have enough footage to make this work?'” Oddly enough, one of the video's most memorable moments exists only because things went wrong. The fake advertisement that opens the video wasn't part of the original masterplan. It emerged from behind-the-scenes footage and spontaneous ideas stitched together afterwards. “I didn't even know the camera was rolling for some of those shots,” she laughs. Sometimes Plan B has better comic timing than Plan A!
Spot The Easter Eggs
Like any self-respecting pop universe, Snakes and Ladders rewards repeat viewing. “There are so many Easter eggs,” Noush! tells ETV Bharat. Her favourite? “The title of my next song is already hidden in the video.”
Trying to describe Noush!'s music using one genre is a little like trying to describe the internet using one website. Every song sounds different: Pop, soul, jazz, R&B, cinematic, experimental. Instead of apologising for that, she's built an entire concept around it. Welcome to Noush! FM. “When people ask me what kind of music I make, every song is so different,” she says. “So I started thinking of myself as a radio station.” Each release becomes another channel. Another mood. Another emotional frequency.
“My tagline is: 'Come tune in. You might find your station.'” It's a fitting metaphor. Human beings aren't one emotion. Why should musicians be?
The Cat, The Clothes and The Character
If you assume the stylish wardrobe in the Snakes and Ladders music video came from an expensive stylist, prepare to be surprised. Every outfit belonged to Noush! Even the dancers borrowed her clothes. “I love fashion,” she says. Building a new artistic identity wasn't about inventing someone else. Quite the opposite. “I feel like I'm actually being more myself now.” That extends to her social media presence too.
Like many musicians, she admits she has always had a complicated relationship with constantly existing online. Now, instead of trying to fit into someone else's idea of what an artist should look like, she's leaning into her own instincts. The polka dots, the vintage styling, the humour, the exaggerated expressions. It's less of a makeover than a permission slip.
Then there's Sushi. No conversation about Noush! would be complete without mentioning Sushi, a rescued calico kitten who had been hit by a car before Noush! found her. Now she's healthy, adored and occasionally appears on social media. “She's bite-sized,” Noush! says affectionately. “So we called her Sushi.” It's exactly the kind of detail that makes the entire Noush! universe feel complete.
Accidental Taylor Swift Coincidence
One final twist. Snakes and Ladders released on July 3, 2026, the very same day Taylor Swift got married. “It wasn't planned. I had no idea,” laughs the unabashed Swiftie. “Good for her. Good for me.”
If your debut as a newly named artist accidentally coincides with one of pop culture's biggest news stories, perhaps the universe is reminding you that timing, much like Snakes and Ladders, is sometimes completely out of your hands. The important thing is to keep climbing anyway. And if you're lucky, you'll eventually build a universe that's unmistakably your own; complete with exclamation marks, hidden clues, telenovelas, polka dot dresses and a photogenic cat named Sushi.
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