Dubbed as the Indian equivalent to One Direction, boy band heartthrobs, SANAM, are heading to the Centre Court at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on August 28 to perform in a must-see concert. 

Having taken the internet by storm, this popular pop-rock group can’t wait to perform in the country.  “We’re really looking forward to our first visit to South Africa and we’ve planned a power-packed show,” says Samar Puri.

The band, who rose to fame after composing renditions of Bollywood hit songs and uploading them to YouTube, consists of frontman Sanam Puri, Samar Puri on lead guitar and vocals, Venky S on bass guitar and Keshay Dhanrai on drums.

SANAM’s YouTube channel, featuring both original and cover songs, boasts over 650 000 subscribers with millions of views. With fans affectionately referred to as SANAMians, the Duaa music video, featuring Sanah Moidutty, has enjoyed a staggering 12 million views.

“YouTube was a blessing. We wanted to store some videos online so we could share them with our friends and the industry. We didn’t have enough money to hire a team to shoot our videos or edit them, so we decided to learn to do it on our own.

“Our focus throughout was overcoming every obstacle that came our way and our dream of making music and music videos for the world to see. We never sat to think about fame or where this would take us,”  says Puri.

Humble about their fame, the boy band describes their sound as mix of contemporary pop rock with their distinct blend of Omani and Indian musicians.

SANAM’s sound is refreshingly different and this sets them apart from the rest of the Indian Indie music scene. With a string of hits, the band’s original single Main Hoon was also featured in the Indian release of Hollywood blockbuster, The Amazing Spiderman 2.

“We don’t limit ourselves to one style of music.  We just want to keep putting out good music and keep our listeners happy,” says Sanam.  “Each of us has different musical inspirations and the blend of all our styles is evident in the music we create,” adds Keshav.

Originally known as The SQS Project and SQS Supastars, the talented youngsters changed their name to SANAM in 2014.

Samar, Venky and Sanam attended the same school where they started the band. After school Sanam and Samar moved to Mumbai to pursue their musical dreams and was later introduced to Keshav, where they formed The SQS Project.

In May 2010, Times Music launched a nationwide search for a pop band in India. Out of the thousands of entries, The SQS Project won the hearts of the nation. The trio reunited with Venky for the finals and the SQS Supastars were born. They went on to win the coveted title. The band released the album, Supastars, and music videos of their songs Hawa Hawa and Bekha.

Tickets are R200 at Computicket or through the Emperors Palace Box Office on 011 928 1297/1213.

Enjoy the latest rendition of SANAM’s super hit song Hai Apna Dil To Awara from the 1958 movie Solva Saal at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgkMXex2DI.