From Baarishein and Alag Aasmaan to Gul, Husn, Jo Tum Mere Ho and Aise Kaise Jaise, Anuv Jain’s music has grown deliberately unhurried — moving from quiet listens to shared, global sing-alongs. Without spectacle, his songs settle into silences and crowds alike. Dastakhat, his latest tour, feels like a reflective signature on that journey, as he returns to Hyderabad at Hitex Exhibition Centre on February 6.
Explaining the meaning behind the name, Anuv says the wordplay has always been intentional. He warmly begins, “Dastakein was like knocking on a door — an introduction to my music, knocking on someone’s heart for the first time. Guldasta was everything coming together once that door opened — all my music combined. Dastakhat is like the final signature you do before you leave. I’m not leaving or going anywhere, but it feels like the ending of this chapter before I do something very different later.”
Emotionally, Dastakhat represents something he had been missing for a while: closeness. After years of singing at festivals and solo gigs, Anuv felt the need to return to a more personal way of performing. He explains, “I hadn’t done a proper tour in a long time. I’d been doing festivals and shows here and there, but I hadn’t really met my audience with the kind of show I wanted to give them. The number one thing we wanted with this tour was to be among the crowd, be as interactive as possible, sing with everybody, and be as close as possible.”
As part of the Dastakhat tour, Anuv returns to Hyderabad — a city that, he admits, continues to surprise him. The first time he visited, he arrived with little expectation. What stayed with him instead was the city’s scale and warmth. He expresses, “Please take this as a compliment — when I first came to Hyderabad, I didn’t know much about it. But when I reached, I was blown away by how beautiful it is. It’s such a proper metropolitan city — clean, beautiful, and amazing to look at.”
What surprised him even more was the response to his music. He gushes, “When we first came, we didn’t even know if people had heard my songs. We thought, ‘Let’s try it out and see how it goes’. But every time I’ve come back, people have turned up in numbers and sung every song. That really surprised me.” If he had to sum up the city in a single feeling, Anuv says, it would be ‘surprise’ — because Hyderabad never stops doing that. He further adds, “The audience is loud everywhere — but Hyderabad is different because of the language and cultural space. When I perform here and see people singing every word back to me, it just makes the experience more beautiful.”
Six years of constant performing have transformed Anuv as a live artist. He recalls his early shows as bare and stripped-down, a contrast to the precision of his current setup. “Now we have a proper band, an entire set, everything is time-coded. Everybody has to be on time or we miss the beat. Even the visuals are time-coded with us. I couldn’t have done this five years ago. It took me time to learn how to be inside a crowd, how to interact with people while performing. This tour feels like the culmination of everything I’ve learned,” he shares.
At the core of Anuv’s songwriting remains real life — his own, and that of those closest to him. “Everything I’ve written is something I’ve seen myself or seen someone close to me go through. My inspiration comes from me, my family, friends, and the people I talk to every day,” he expresses.
Marriage, he admits, has subtly shaped that process too. Having been with his partner, Hridi Narang for a long time, the shift wasn’t sudden — but living together added another trusted voice to his creative circle. Alongside his mother and sister, his partner became part of his first audience. He expresses, “For example, I wrote Arz Kiya Hai for Coke Studio Bharat because I got married. I wouldn’t have been able to write that song without those experiences. The same goes for Inaam. I wouldn’t have made it the way I did if she wasn’t there. It’s not a monumental change, but ideas start flowing better.”
As Hyderabad prepares for his show, Anuv has one clear message for his listeners. “Bring your A-game,” he says. Calling it one of the biggest shows on the Indian leg of the tour, he promises to return the energy tenfold. He adds, “Come sing, be loud, come with proper energy. This is not just my show — it’s their show as well.”
As for what lies ahead, he remains measured but excited. “There are a few things happening that I can’t really talk about right now. But some things are going on, and I’m very excited about them,” he concludes.