SANJU RATHOD ON HOW HE PUT MARATHI RAJASTHANI FOLK, HIP-HOP AND AFRO TOGETHER FOR 'SHAKY'

'We didn't just want to put out another song—we wanted to rebrand the sound, the movement, the identity we were building together,' says the 'Gulabi Sadi' hitmaker

- By ANURAG TAGAT

There might be a dancefloor-ready Afro rhythm that drives Marathi pop artist Sanju Rathod’s new song “Shaky,” but the charming voice behind ‘Gulabi Sadi’ is clear that it’s his roots in the Banjara community, its people, and their language that inspire him. “My people have always shaped my music,” he says.

Both “Gulabi Sadi” and Rathod’s follow-up single, “Kaali Bindi” have nods to his Banjara identity and Marathi upbringing in Jalgaon, but “Shaky” takes it a step further. Made with his brother and producer G-Spark and crediting the team at Believe Artist Services, Rathod says “Shaky” birthed “a new energy” within him that he followed with rigorous writing until he had his creative breakthrough idea for the song.