Emmy Winner Siddhartha Khosla Reveals Secrets Behind ‘Paradise’ Theme Using His Voice!

Siddhartha Khosla may have delayed diving into the script for Hulu’s Paradise, but once he did, the results were nothing short of spectacular, marking another successful project with series creator and college buddy, Dan Fogelman.

“Dan often sends me scripts, and I usually take months to get around to them,” Khosla shared during a panel discussion about the series at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Television event. “I’m either swamped with other projects or just dragging my feet. With Paradise, he emailed me the script with a note saying, ‘For your eyes only. No one else has seen this. Let me know what you think.'”

It took several months before Khosla finally read the Paradise script. The nudge came when Fogelman called him, about to discuss the project with Disney executives, and wanted Khosla on the call to present the theme song for the series.

“That night, I went home in a panic, read the script, and was completely blown away. I composed the theme quickly,” he recounted. “I recorded it on my iPhone and sent it to him, and he immediately responded, ‘That’s the theme. Play it on Thursday.’ And just like that, it was set.”

When crafting the theme song, Khosla focused on “the emotional dynamics between the characters,” aiming to create something “extremely cinematic. I wanted it to have the feel of a film,” he explained.

“Even though it took me about six months to start reading his script, I began composing the score six months prior to filming,” he continued. “I shared ideas and sounds early on. Many of the loops you hear are derived from my vocal sounds and unusually played string instruments like violins and cellos, creating rich textures by looping them repeatedly and building upon those layers. It felt very natural, and we aimed to maintain a sense of unease within the score.”

Khosla, who recently won an Emmy for his work on Only Murders in the Building, mentioned that scoring for that show wasn’t much different from scoring Paradise.

“Like Only Murders, which balances drama with comedy, it’s all about uncovering the story’s subtext,” he said. “Beneath any comedy lies a tragic story. Only Murders revolves around three disconnected individuals living in a New York building, and often, it’s their isolation I’m scoring. Here, in this sci-fi setting, it’s about the characters striving to reconnect with lost or absent loved ones.”

Be sure to check back Monday for the panel video.