Prateek Kuhad

When we attended singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad’s gig last month, we were not completely surprised by his popularity, but yes, mildly taken aback. The tiny, basement venue was packed to the brim — this writer had to kindly request his accommodating manager to let us inside, as the RSVP list was booked few hours after the gig went public. As he took to stage and started his set with his hit Flames from his album, In Tokens and Charms, the crowd seems to collectively swoon – and it wasn’t just the women doing the swooning. There was also a lot of singing along. It’s been a while since we have seen a musician, who doesn’t have a single Bollywood hit in their repertoire, to have such a following. But then his songs (mostly love tunes in Hindi and English with reflective lyrics and sweet melodies) are the stuff good music is made of. He recently finished a tour where he played for sold-out sit-down shows, which could almost be unheard of in the indie music space. When we meet him over chai in Mahim the weekend after, one of the things we are aching to know is – are all the “love” songs inspired by his own life? Or is it insipid of us to take them literally? But Kuhad just laughs, “Most of the songs are inspired by girls I may have known, or know. One of them doesn’t even know the song is about her. Maybe I should tell her now. It’s high time.” He still remembers writing his first "good" song after a really sad incident. “I was crying as I wrote the song. And then I made a few people listen to it, like my sister. And they were like, ‘ok, this is great stuff’,” says the 26-year-old.