25 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSrosh KhanandNaomi de Souza,BBC Newsbeat
Meghan KattiCan you find success as an Indian artist, outside of the Bollywood machine, while making music that feels like you?
Well according to Anuv Jain it’s possible – and you can even create something “beautiful”.
The singer-songwriter’s soft vocals have gained hundreds of millions of views on YouTube – not an easy feat as an independent artist in India’s music scene.
BBC Newsbeat met Jain as he prepared for the final shows on the European leg of his first world tour to find out why he’s taking his time and “hoping for the best”.
“It’s not about the numbers,” Jain tells us backstage, ahead of his sold-out performance at London’s Roundhouse.
But they do tell a story.
Jain is from Ludhiana in the Punjab region of India and began singing as a teenager.
His tracks have since racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube with their emotional storylines about relationships and heartbreak.
Jain primarily sings in Hindi, with his pieces often exploring deep emotions like love and longing.
Fans talk about feeling like his music sountracks their lives and is personal to them.
His accessible style has attracted 3.9 million followers on Instagram and more than 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
According to Jain, the secret to his success is simple..
When writing music, he says, he imagines how someone listening in the car, going for a run or sitting alone at night would feel hearing the song.
“I just try to make a good song and something that I would like to listen to, something my mom, my sister and my wife would like to listen to,” he says.
“For some reason, the taste that we have in music is gentle enough that when we put it out there, there are millions of people who are wanting to consume all of this.”
Jain has attracted a sizeable fanbase without the backing of Bollywood, which has traditionally dominated the Indian music industry with opportunities and significant funding for artists.
He’s one of a growing number of independent musicians offering something different to the rollicking film scores and dramatic ballads that are synonymous with the country’s movie industry.
Jain describes artists like him as existing in an “alternate space”.
“We release music ourselves and hope for the best,” he says.
Jo Tum Mere Ho and Afsos, Jain’s track with AP Dhillon, both reached number one on the Asian Music Charts, but the singer says there’s no recipe to his success.
Meghan KattiJain says he’s “very selective” about the music he releases, only putting out one song a year until recently.
But he plans to change that – and insists he has new songs coming “very soon”.
“They’re done and I think they’re beautiful songs so technically you might have more music this year,” he says.
“It’s not like it’s gonna be just one release, let’s see how it works out.”
The singer explains that seeing a project through is key – which might be why he limits what he puts out.
“There are no projects like right now for me that are half or that I haven’t completed them yet.
“When I start a project, I always finish it. I mean, I might have ideas, but as soon as I start writing, I finish it.”
Simplicity seems to do the trick, with certain passages of Jain’s songs, like Arz Kiya Hai, becoming hugely popular among his fanbase and going viral on TikTok and Instagram.
Meghan KattiThere have been high-profile collaborations between some of western music and Indian music’s biggest names in recent years.
Jain says he’d be open to working with bigger stars, but only if his own identity can be preserved and things are done “the right way”.
“The storytelling cannot get diluted just because there’s a bigger name attached,” he says.
But, he adds: “I’m not there yet”.
However, Jain does admit he could see himself joining forces with former One Direction star Zayn Malik, who’s enjoyed success in both the Official Singles Chart and Official Asian Music Chart.
“He would be somebody who would definitely work very well with the kind of music that I make,” says Jain.
“Maybe the universe will just make it happen.”
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