Darius was born in Islington, London in 1966. His mother is from Lancashire and his father from a Parsee family in Bombay. He began to play the piano by ear at a very early age, later taking up the cello and finally the organ, becoming organist at St Mary, Islington when he was 13. He was educated at William Ellis School in Highgate, and later went to Leeds University to study music. After graduating with first-class honours he completed his studies with postgraduate diplomas in organ (with distinction) and piano accompaniment from the Royal Northern College of Music, where he won prizes on both instruments, including the Brigitte Fassbaender award for best lieder accompanist. His teachers included Ryzard Bakst, Martin Roscoe, John Wilson, Graham Barber and Ronald Frost. He also completed a MusM in performance at Manchester University.
Darius has been music director of the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus since 1997. He has conducted the choir in performances with the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia, and directed from the harpsichord with the Manchester Camerata. Since he took over as music director, the choir has performed from memory for the first time, and has appeared at the BBC Proms and on recordings for Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic. In 2006 Battiwalla returned to work with the Melbourne Chorale. Before taking up his post at Sheffield he was chorusmaster of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus.
He has worked regularly as guest chorusmaster or conductor with many other choirs including the CBSO Chorus, Huddersfield Choral Society and Netherlands Radio Choir. Recent highlights include working with the Lucerne Festival Academy in preparation for a performance of Berio’s Coro conducted by Simon Rattle, and serving as guest chorusmaster for the Northern Sinfonia for Paul McCreesh.