Gulabi sadi & Shaky singer Sanju Rathod: ‘I want to take Marathi stories to the world’

Sanju Rathod

There is no entourage or a polished script. Singer Sanju Rathod doesn't arrive with the fanfare of a pop star; instead, there is a calm presence, and a willingness to talk about heartbreak and hustle that led him to the viral Marathi song, Gulabi sadi. Tell him that the melody has echoed through weddings, reels, and college campuses, and he says, "I just try to make a melody that everyone likes, from kids to elders, and I use words we hear every day. Gulabi sadi is about a couple supporting each other; nothing extraordinary, just everyday love."

That really is Rathod's superpower - taking the ordinary and giving it rhythm, turning them into anthems. Long before virality found him, he was studying mechanical engineering in Maharashtra's Dhanvad, a village with barely 50 houses, no music teachers, or functional internet. "I couldn't even talk in front of eight people," he recalls. So, what made this boy, who would tremble in front of people, seek out an audience? "When my first love suddenly stopped talking to me, it broke something in me, but also made me want to prove something, not to her, but to myself. So, I started writing, rapping, performing at local events, shaking with fear but still going up. Slowly, people started telling me I was good. That gave me the push."

Gulabi sadi; Nauvari and Shaky

Today, the singer and songwriter has several Marathi hits to his credit, from Nauvari to the recent Shaky. A fitting culmination to the journey he started in 2017 when he dropped out of engineering, moved to Mumbai, stayed with friends, and faced financial instability. "My family didn't think music was a real thing. They thought I was wasting my time. When I'd return to the village, people said I had changed, and I had because I didn't want to remain stuck, I wanted to evolve," he states.

His evolution has also become the evolution of Marathi music. With his songs, he wants to take Marathi pop, or M-Pop, in a new direction. He explains, "M-Pop is me evolving without losing my roots. Marathi music has emotional depth, linguistic closeness to Hindi, and with Mumbai as our creative hub, we can go national, even global. I want to take Marathi stories to the world."