Aditi Saigal aka Dot: Winning with words and melody

Aditi Saigal Photo By: Mexy Xavier; Directed By: Kapil Kashyap Outfit: Miakee; Jewellery: Drip Project, Viange Vintage; Shoes: Aldo Styled By: Zainab Shakir; Assistant Stylists: Mannat Bhalla, Samridh Gupta

Aditi Saigal aka DOT | 25
Musician, actor

As far as Aditi Saigal, or Dot—as she is popularly known—can remember, music has always been a part of her life. Daughter of rock musician Amit Saigal and actor Shena Gamat, she remembers dancing around her home in Delhi to the beats of jazz. An avid learner of various musical instruments in school, she was particularly interested in playing the piano. She has been singing and writing songs since she was a teenager. She attended the Woodstock School for its music department, and then the University of Bangor in the UK for a bachelor’s degree in music and creative writing.

Today, Dot has over 2 lakh monthly listeners on Spotify, and has particularly garnered a fan base after her songs in Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies, in which she also debuted as an actor and played the character Ethel Muggs.

Apart from singles like ‘Girls Night’ and ‘Indigo’, in collaboration with Playbook Records, Dot’s album is called Practise Rooms and her debut EP (Extended Play) is ‘Khamotion’. She released her first song ‘Everybody loves Techno’ on YouTube in 2017 which was a big hit.

Her next album Sea Creature on the Sofa, will release this year. Dot believes that song writing, her favourite part of making music, is a personal process. “I’ve always been interested in the interplay between words and melodies,” she says, believing that conviction is a significant part of making music. “If it doesn’t mean much to you, even in an abstract sense, you’ll not be able to deliver it with authenticity or integrity, which is what your listeners want,” she says.

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Dot believes that creating music is one thing but sharing it holds a lot of importance, and considers it to be “daunting, but freeing”. A song called ‘Asymmetrical’, which she had shared on her YouTube channel landed her not only a playback opportunity for songs such as ‘Dishoom Dishoom’ and ‘Sunoh’ in The Archies, but also an opportunity in the acting world as well.  

Singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari says Dot’s unique style makes her stand out. “She writes beautiful words that blend well with the music that she creates. It’s interesting that her music gives me a sense of nostalgia yet it’s so fresh,” he says.



In 2024, Dot wants to focus on writing. “I think this year I’m very determined to make something which is completely my own,” she concludes.