Keshav Dhanraj Biography 
Keshav Dhanraj is a singer and musician, best known as the drummer of India’s top pop rock band, Sanam. He is one among the four members of the rock band, tagged as Fab Four! . The other members are Sanam Puri - the leading vocalist, his brother Samar Puri - the guitarist and Venkat Subramaniyam (Venky S) - a bass guitarist. The band is best known for recreating old and new popular Bollywood songs, and one of the most popular music bands from India, with 4.4 Million Subscribers and more than 800 million views on YouTube within a short span of 5 years, since the old band, SQS project was rechristened as Sanam in 2014. The band is also referred to as India's One Direction because of their fast popularity, and they came to limelight soon after winning 2010 talent hunt show of Times Music in India. Venky played an important role in connecting his three friends, and that’s how the band was born.
Apart from independent music, the band has composed and sang a few filmy tracks too. They also invite female singers to perform along with them. Yeh Raatein Yeh Mausam featuring Simran Sehgal, Yeh Raat Bheegi Bheegi featuring Aishwarya Majmudar, Teri Aankhon Se featuring Jonita Gandhi, Kuch Na Kaho featuring Shirley Setia, Yeh Wada Raha featuring Mira etc were huge chartbusters. Revival of old classics like Lag Jaa Gale, Gulabi Aankhein, O Mere Dil Ka Chein, Mere Mehboob Qayamat Hogi, Tere Bina Zindagi Se etc too were huge chartbusters. Revived versions of new songs like Buleya, Bheegi Bheegi Raatom Mein, Samjhawa, Tum Hi Ho too also received warm welcome from their fans. Sanam has composed the song, "Main Hoon" for the promotion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in India.
The story of Sanam band started back in 2010 when Venky and Samar, who were batchmates in Indian School, Muscat decided to start a new band. Samar did so to give his younger brother an opportunity in singing. When they moved back to India Puri brothers got involved in the college rock circuits of Delhi. Venky took up bass playing with various bands at Bangalore and when he met drummer Keshav Dhanraj through the college rock circuit, they formed an alternative rock outfit called ‘The Previous Band’ which was short lived.
In 2009, Samar and Sanam moved to Mumbai to pursue a music career, while Keshav also took up a job with Furtados. Venky connected the three of them and they started off at Keshav’s garage writing music together. When Times Music launched a nationwide pop band hunt called ‘Supastars’ for young talent in 2010, they also participated in the contest, giving their band name - The SQS Project. Initially three members, Venky joined them in the final round when he moved to India and they won the contest. They renamed the band as ‘SQS Supastars’. The band released their first self-titled album, Supastars. "Hawa Hawa" and "Behka" were the first music videos released.
They moved to Mumbai, and the journey of the band had a major breakthrough when they met Ben Thomas in 2012, who recognized the real marketing potential of the band. As suggested by him the group started a YouTube Channel to upload their music videos without any gatekeepers. The first song uploaded was their original song 'Teri Aankhon Se', and they also rechristened their band as Sanam in 2013. And the rest is history. For about 3 years the band worked towards releasing new music in the form of singles consistently, and their popularity grew immensely with most of their videos crossing 3 or 4 million views within a few months of release.
While the rest three studied at an Indian school in Muscat, Keshav Dhanraj studied in India. He was born and brought up in Coimbatore. He got connected with Venky through music circuit. Samar Puri is the class mate of Venky, while Sanam, his younger brother. Keshav previously worked as a brand manager for Zildjian, Pearl, and Evans, before he joined with the rest three. He is an avid dog lover. His favourite hobbies include listening to music and travelling.
Published: September 19, 2018
Updated: September 19, 2018
