When Hariharan and Leslie Lewis came together to form Colonial Cousins, their music was just like their names - an unlikely but perfect combination of east and west.

It was 1996, and the popular music scene in India was just starting to experiment with new sounds and sensibilities. At this point of time, two guys from completely different backgrounds decided to come together and experiment with their music. The result was Colonial Cousins, a band which seemed to effortlessly fuse eastern melody with western chords.

The music was a unique blend of Indian classical, western pop, Indian pop and semi-classical idioms, and as a result, caught the fancy of the young as well as older listeners. In fact, it was when MTV Unplugged invited them to perform, that people actually got to know of them and they certainly did Indians proud by being the first Asians and only Indians to have ever performed on this prestigious show.

When their debut album Colonial Cousins hit the music stores, it lost no time is breaking all records and climbing right to the top of the charts. The album hit platinum sales in India and was a consistent chart topper in the Indian music charts. It received the MTV Asia Viewers’ Choice Award (1996) and the US Billboard’s Viewers’ Award (1996).

In 1998, the Colonial Cousins released their much awaited second album, The Way We Do It. This album also rocked the charts. The duo took four years to bring out their third album, Aatma in 2002. It has been six years since we have heard from them, though Hariharan continues to perform and record widely.