Anuv Jain

Ludhiana, a guitar at sixteen

Anuv Jain was born on 11 March 1995 in Ludhiana, Punjab, and grew up there with his twin sister, Anigha. He picked up a guitar at sixteen and began composing as a way of processing things, including the death of his father when he was seventeen. The first song he wrote, 'Meri Baaton Mein Tu', dates from that same year of life; he opened a YouTube channel in 2012 and put it up there, which is as close as his career has to a start date.

Music stayed a sideline for years. He moved to Mumbai to take a Bachelor of Business Administration at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, and it was only during the Covid lockdowns that he committed to writing and releasing full time. The sound he arrived at owes less to Hindi film music than to bedroom-recorded Western indie: he has named Joji as his main point of reference, with an admiration for Novo Amor. Asked in November 2026 about the singers who shaped him, he listed Arijit Singh, Atif Aslam, Sonu Nigam, Shaan and Lata Mangeshkar instead, and said he would like to record with Shreya Ghoshal.

Baarishein, recorded five years late

The song that made him was written at seventeen for someone he loved and not recorded until he was twenty-one. 'Baarishein' came out in 2016 and did nothing quickly; it crept, then crossed 100 million Spotify streams, then 200 million, and the billing for his 2026 London show now puts it beyond 800 million. The template was set with it and has barely moved since: acoustic guitar or ukulele, no percussion, one voice close to the microphone, Hindi lyrics about love and its aftermath. He has told Rolling Stone India that he takes his material from real events and works on a song over months rather than weeks.

A run of singles followed through the lockdown years and after it — 'Maula', 'Mishri' and 'Alag Aasmaan' in 2020, 'Gul' in 2021, 'Mazaak' in 2022, 'Antariksh' in 2023 — each released independently, each built on the same unhurried arrangement. He performed at Post Malone's India concert in 2022, and in 2023 was named in Forbes India's 30 Under 30. In April 2024 he reworked 'Baarishein' for the UN-backed Sounds Right initiative, folding recordings of Indian rainstorms into the track so that royalties would flow to conservation.

Husn, and the change of scale

'Husn', released in 2023, turned a well-liked indie act into a chart act. It took more than 50 million Spotify streams in its first month and passed 300 million across platforms inside three, reached number one on both Apple Music India and Spotify India across all genres, and finished as the most-streamed indie track on India's 2024 year-end charts. 'Jo Tum Mere Ho', in 2024, did much the same thing a second time, clearing 100 million Spotify streams within two months.

Since then he has edged outwards without changing the core. 'Afsos', released in 2025, was his first collaborative single and his thirteenth release overall, written with AP Dhillon after the two met in September 2024; Jain has described the writing as unusually quick and the pairing as easy. He also recorded 'Arz Kiya Hai' for Coke Studio India, which has passed 50 million Spotify streams. His most recent single, 'Inaam', came out on 12 December 2025 and deals with the gap between wanting something and valuing it once it arrives. As of September 2026 his YouTube channel held 3.8 million subscribers and 1.8 billion views. He married Hridi Narang, who runs a candle and decor business, on 14 February 2025.

Independent on purpose

Jain has never signed the obvious deal, and in an interview published on 4 November 2026 he explained the arithmetic behind that. Bollywood has made approaches, he said, and he intends to wait: 'There have been a few offers from Bollywood, and I would really like to wait for the right project to come my way. I'm quite selective.' The reason he can be selective is that the independent catalogue pays. 'I've been very fortunate that all the music I've released independently has helped me build a strong foundation for myself, both financially and in terms of my audience.'

He has also been candid about the cost of a run of hits — 'Success adds another layer of pressure because you naturally want to keep replicating it' — and about wanting to write past romance, in more than one language, Punjabi included. A standing complaint of his is that nobody asks about the easter eggs he buries in lyrics and videos.

Dastakhat: the third tour, the first global one

Dastakhat means signature, and it completes a sequence: Dastakein in 2021, Guldasta in 2023, and now a 23-city run across India, Australia, Europe, the UAE and North America. Jain framed the announcement as 'signing my name on a story that began years ago' and as 'an embrace of where I come from'. An HSBC presale opened on 22 November 2025 with general sales through BookMyShow on 24 November; a warm-up came at Lucknow's Repertwahr Festival on 19 December 2025.

The India leg opened in New Delhi on 16 January 2026 and worked through Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Indore, a Valentine's Day show in Mumbai, Jaipur and finally Bengaluru on 22 February. A Dubai date at the Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre in Expo City, set for 12 April with tickets from Dh125, was pulled on 8 April; Jain cited 'the current scenario around the world' on Instagram and promised details later. It has since been reset for Expo City Dubai on 20 November 2026, and that is the one date still on sale.

The rest of the year sold hard. Kash Patel Productions announced on 7 May that Chicago, Boston, New York and Dallas had sold out on his first US run, with Atlanta and San Francisco close behind, the rooms deliberately kept small; a Toronto show at REBEL followed on 17 May. Australia came in late July and August through UNIFIED Music Group and blaide.live, with Perth's Magnet House on 31 July and Adelaide's Lion Arts Factory on 8 August sold out, alongside Sydney's Enmore Theatre, the Forum in Melbourne and the Triffid in Brisbane. The European leg ran through September and October, including the Roundhouse in London on 30 September.

What the room is like now

Dastakhat is the first time Jain has toured with a full live band, and the staging has been built to work against the size of the venues rather than with it. He leaves the main stage to sing from the back of the floor near the sound console, talks between songs, pulls people up — a fan named Kirti joined him onstage for her birthday in Calcutta — and stays afterwards to read placards, sign things and take photographs. Roughly 5,000 people were in the Calcutta room in early February; the Roundhouse billing describes stripped-back arrangements and a crowd that sings every word, which is a fair account of what the footage shows.

Set lengths have run to about an hour and a half: the San Francisco show on 11 May 2026 ran from 8.40pm to 10.15pm. The shape is consistent — 'Alag Aasmaan', 'Husn', 'Jo Tum Mere Ho', 'Afsos' and 'Arz Kiya Hai' through the middle, 'Baarishein' at the end, and in Calcutta played twice because the room would not let it go. Support has been booked locally rather than carried: Reuben De Melo in Perth, Jessie Hill and Sarhad Project in Sydney, Jessie Hill with Sagar Tiwari and Into The Unknown in Melbourne, Into The Unknown and ZAV-E in Adelaide, Hazel Mei in Brisbane.