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Aashray Harishankar makes feature film scoring debut with ‘Namaslay’
Namaslay opened in theaters on August 6 and is currently playing in select theaters across the United States and Canada.
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Bhavana P - Sat, 22, Aug 2026
- 17:29 EDT
- 51
Official film poster for 'Namaslay.' / Image courtesy of Junghal Studios.
Indian American composer Aashray Harishankar has made his feature film scoring debut with Namaslay, a horror satire that combines Indian masala cinema with comedy, family drama and supernatural elements.
Written and directed by brothers Rish and Kanish Arhant-Sudhir, Namaslay follows Gayatri and her friend Judy as they become involved with an upscale yoga studio in Los Angeles. After Gayatri is invited to an exclusive instructors’ retreat, she discovers a darker side to the studio and its founder.
Harishankar composed more than 80 minutes of music for the film, creating a score that moves between Indian and Western musical traditions to reflect the story and its characters. One of the central themes represents Paati, Gayatri’s grandmother, and draws heavily from Indian classical music. Another theme, associated with the Vital Soul Yoga studio, draws on Western classical music and gradually shifts from a comedic tone into horror.
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The score also incorporates South Indian percussion and influences from Indian films including Padmaavat, Lagaan and Kantara, alongside Western classical works such as Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre. Harishankar traveled to India in 2025 to record parts of the score with musicians there.
The composer said the film’s musical identity connected with his own experience growing up in Southern California.
“This identity reflects strongly in my own experience growing up in Southern California, so it was easy to embody that in the music,” Harishankar said in a statement published by CalArt. “This film was very much an amalgamation of an entire life’s experience.”
A composer, sound engineer and keyboardist, Harishankar has worked across pop, electronic, jazz and R&B and grew up studying South Indian classical music. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in Music from the California Institute of the Arts in 2022.
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