SANAM (band)

Early Years and Formation

Venky S, in his school days enjoyed watching a lot of MTV and Channel V; major influences being the music videos of Queen, Michael Jackson, Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Nirvana, and a few others. Indipop was at its peak on TV at the time. His mother loved watching Hindi movies, which got him listening to many popular Bollywood songs at the time. He enjoyed singing and also playing the Guitar and bass at a very young age. Keshav Dhanraj was introduced to music by his brother Arjun Dhanraj, who had his own band and was always into music as a child. Inspired by Arjun, Keshav began to explore different instruments (Violin, Recorder, Guitars, Drums) and different styles of music by going for concerts and watching other musicians perform. Keshav got the initial feel of performing to an audience at a young age by doing shows with his brother’s band, before he set out to start his own. Brothers Samar Puri and Sanam Puri enjoyed composing songs to surprise their parents from the age of 6-7. Samar Puri initially started off by going for Piano classes in Delhi for a few weeks when he was younger. During that time, their parents forced Sanam Puri to also learn the Piano and do vocal lessons as they discovered that he could sing. However the classes were short lived. Around this time, Samar and Sanam Puri were enrolled in talent competitions (most of which they won) and were accompanied by their mother since they were still very young at the time. Sanam Puri eventually started learning to play the keyboard and Samar started the guitar. Samar also enjoyed writing lyrics about the age of 12. They grew up listening to a lot of pop music but slowly cut down on listening to artists and concentrated more on composing music together.

Years later, Samar Puri and Venky S, while studying together in ‘Indian School Muscat’ started a pop rock band with Sanam Puri. After moving back to India, Samar and Sanam began exploring different music avenues in Delhi. Sanam Puri became active in the college rock circuit in Delhi by performing in bands like Decibel, Bandish, and went on to win quite a few local competitions while Samar Puri explored different styles of music production and continued to write lyrics. Some of "Samar Sanam" songs (like Badalne ke intezaar mein") were written during this time. Together they wrote and composed a number of songs which they would perform at family functions. Venky S moved to Bangalore and continued his music by starting new musical projects with a new set of friends. He took up bass playing with bands like Soundproof, Haven and Chronic Blues Circus. and also started singing swing/jazz standards, in A cappella groups and doing Karaoke gigs with friends. Around this time, he met Keshav Dhanraj who was based out of Chennai and was drumming for a few popular Chennai based bands like like Nerverek and Buzz Theory. They decided to start an alternative rock outfit called ‘The Previous Band’. However, that dream fell short when other members of the band decided to move abroad for further studies. Brothers Samar Puri and Sanam Puri, following their musical dreams moved to Mumbai from Delhi in 2000. Venky S, who was still in Bangalore, introduced them to Keshav Dhanraj, who had just meanwhile also moved to Mumbai to work with Furtados Music as the Brand Manager for Zildjian, Pearl Drums and Evans India. Samar, Keshav and Sanam together formed 'The SQS Project’ in Keshav’s garage in Mumbai, later joined by Venky.

2010: Forming of SQS Supastas

In May 2010, Times music launched a Nationwide Pop band hunt called ‘SUPASTARS’ for young talent in India. Amongst thousands of entries, 'The SQS Project' won the title ‘TIMES MUSIC SUPASTARS’, changing the band name to ‘SQS Supastars’. Along with their three-year record deal with Times Music, the band was introduced for the first time into the world of show business.

The band released their first self-titled album, ‘Supastas’ and later released music videos of their songs ‘Hawa Hawa' and ‘Behka'. This project featured the work of major Swedish and Denmark music labels who handled the entire mixing and mastering of the album. The band also endorsed the ‘Mufti’ clothing line during their second music video "Behka" Amongst the band first performances was the ‘Femina Miss India’ beauty contest 2011.

2014: Forming of Sanam and Growth Curve

In 2013 the band met Ben Thomas (Managing Director, Kurian & Co Talent Management), who after years of managing and nurturing some of India’s top singers and composers, decided to channel all his experience and time into grooming and building this band. With a plan of action in place, it was time for the band members to give up everything they were doing at the time and completely focus on their music. This is when Venky gave up his assignments and moved to Mumbai, Keshav Dhanraj quit his job at Furtados and Samar and Sanam Puri stopped composing music for ads and other commercial projects and decided to channel all their energy into the band.

Ben introduced the band to Vishal-Shekhar which led to Sanam Puri’s first Bollywood break as a play back singer with songs like ‘Dhat Teri Ki' from the movie ‘Gori Tere Pyaar Mein' and ‘Ishq Bulaava' from ‘Hasee Toh Phasee'. The same year the band composed its first original composition ‘Main Hoon’ for the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2.

To showcase the look and sound of the band, Ben suggested to make music videos and upload them onto YouTube for the ease of sharing with agents for live concerts globally. After a few months, the band received a cheque from Google worth $800. At first they thought this was some kind of a mistake to later discover that this was money made out of monetisation from the videos uploaded on YouTube.

2014 saw the collective decision of all members to rebrand the band to be called SANAM. They also decided to pursue the YouTube world seriously and consistently with the realization that it worked on neutral, content based algorithms and genuine fan reactions, unlike the closed and biased Bollywood music industry. In addition to this, YouTube also offered tools that allowed the creators to see exactly who their audience is and which videos are buzzing in which regions of the world.

The focus as SANAM band was to make the best use of digital space and build a global audience. The band started releasing original content as well as renditions of some old and new songs. This included songs in English as well as regional languages like Bengali and Gujarati. The band slowly started getting recognised for their renditions of old classic songs like ‘Gulaabi Ankhein’, ‘Mere Mehboob’ etc., and for giving them a new sound.

In 2016 SANAM band was

The band was invited to perform at the Youtube FanFest in the year 2015 and 2016 where the YouTube Channel of SANAM band was announced as the fastest growing and highest watched independent music channel on YouTube in India, with over 14 million channel views every month and a YouTube subscriber base growing at a dramatic pace. Band's official YouTube channel have more than 208 million views with 939+ thousand subscribers with an average of 500K daily views. The bands popularity on social media fuels their growing fanbase in the countries across mainly Maldives, Mauritius, South Africa, Trinidad, Kenya, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, United States, England, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Suriname, besides India.

The band has released a few collaborations."Inquilab Mera Khwab" is a collaboration with Clinton Cerejo as a part of Jammin, a digital musical collaboration featuring leading YouTube's musical talent with four accomplished music composers A R Rahman, Salim-Sulaiman, Clinton Cerejo, and Mithoon to create 10 original soundtracks and music videos.

The Duaa music video, featuring Sanah Moidutty, has enjoyed a staggering 16 million plus lifetime views in about 2 years!. "Yeh Vaada Raha" is a song that featured famed local Maldives singer, Mira Mohamed Majid. It was filmed in Herathera Island Resort in Addu Atoll, Maldives. "Hai Apna Dil to Awara" features famed accordionist of Mauritiius, Mr. Soogum Sookha while "Roop Tera Mastana" features Rhys Sebastian, one of the country's most prodigious saxophone talents.

The band performed in the capital Male at the VMY Music Festival in July 2015 that commemorated the 50th Anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Maldives. The Ballard Estate Festival was formally inaugurated by the chief guest Nitin Gadkari, Minister Of Road Transport and Highways Of India on 24 January followed by a performance by Sanam band. The event was also attended by Actress & Politician Hema Malini.

The band has been often referred to as India's One Direction because of their fast popularity and described as a "fabulous four" by the Times of India.