Varun Sunil

Varun Sunil is an Indian percussionist, singer, music producer, composer and the founder of Masala Coffee, one of India's prominent contemporary folk-fusion bands. Originally from Kochi, Kerala, Varun has spent his career moving across Indian classical, folk, rock, jazz, blues and world music, establishing himself both as a bandleader and as an independent performing musician.

A trained percussionist, Varun works across the mridangam, cajón, darbuka, kanjira and other world percussion instruments. He began learning the mridangam as a child in Kochi, later studied Audio Recording Arts and Music Production at Chetana Studio in Thrissur, and then moved to Chennai to pursue music full time. His early years there were spent producing advertising jingles and music for corporate films and documentaries, alongside extensive work as a freelance musician — performing with artists from very different musical traditions and travelling across India and abroad.

Over the years, Varun has had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with some of India's most respected musicians and performing artists, including Grammy Award winners Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and T. H. Vinayakram, as well as Hariharan, Ranjit Barot, Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Taufiq Qureshi, Sridhar Parthasarathy, Astad Deboo, Sabir Khan, Dilshad Khan, Shankar Tucker, George Brooks and Rizwan-Muazzam Fateh Ali Khan, among others. His work has also brought him together with international musicians such as the Swedish flautist and saxophonist Anders Hagberg.

One of the significant international collaborations in Varun's early career was The Journey Continues, a project bringing together Indian classical, Middle Eastern and European musical traditions. Varun performed alongside Fazal Qureshi, Rahul Sharma, Ahmad Al-Khatib, Anders Hagberg, Sabir Khan, Sanjay Divecha and Sridhar Parthasarathy. The project included performances in New Delhi, Pune and Mumbai, culminating in a concert at St. Andrew's Auditorium, Bandra, Mumbai, commemorating the 96th birth anniversary of the legendary tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha.

Varun has also performed alongside leading Indian percussionists and musicians in major cross-cultural projects. At the Water Festival at Adalaj ni Vav in Gujarat, he shared the stage with artists including Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Ustad Shujaat Khan, George Brooks, Sanjay Divecha, Sridhar Parthasarathy and Sheldon D'Silva.

His musical journey has also included working with celebrated performers such as Stephen Devassy and Hariharan, as well as collaborations and jam sessions with artists including Vidya Vox and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

In 2014, Varun founded Masala Coffee, initially bringing together a group of musicians simply to experiment and create music. Their performances on Kappa TV's Music Mojo, particularly their reinterpretations of "Munbe Vaa" and "Snehithane", went viral and helped establish the band as one of India's most recognisable contemporary folk acts.

Under Varun's musical direction, Masala Coffee has developed a distinctive multilingual identity, performing in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Punjabi and English, while combining Indian folk traditions with contemporary sounds. The band has performed extensively across India and internationally, with documented performances and tours in places including Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Europe, Ireland and the United States.

Varun's work also extends into film music. With Masala Coffee he composed for the Tamil film Uriyadi (2016), released through Sony Music India — among the first occasions on which a band scored a Tamil feature — and the band has since contributed music to films including Solo, Mundina Nildana, Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal and Trance. He has contributed to projects across the Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industries as a percussionist, vocalist and producer.

Varun has also presented his own independent music outside Masala Coffee. In 2019, he performed under his own name at a world-fusion concert in Bengaluru, featuring pianist Vivek Santhosh and hand-pan artist Pramod Venkat. The performance included original material and music influenced by artists such as Yanni, Snarky Puppy and Chick Corea, alongside his collaboration Whispering Hues with veena maestro Rajhesh Vaidhya.

His career reflects an unusual ability to move comfortably between Indian classical percussion, contemporary independent music, folk, rock, jazz, world music and large-scale live performance. Rather than being confined to a single genre, Varun has built his identity around collaboration, experimentation and the belief that different musical traditions can coexist naturally.

Today, Varun Sunil continues to work as a performer, percussionist, singer, composer, producer and bandleader, with Masala Coffee and his independent musical projects taking him to audiences across India and around the world.