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Gulabi Sadi singer Sanju Rathod on Shaky going viral now: It might feature in a Bollywood film soon

Sanju Rathod reflects on rising fame with songs like Shaky, which garnered 3.4 million reels. He prioritises creating music that his Marathi audience enjoys.

Published on: Jun 30, 2025, 02:47:24 IST
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Singer Sanju Rathod seems to have cracked the formula for a hit song. After all, Shaky, his fourth song to have crossed 100 million views on YouTube alone, has become the Number 1 song this week on YouTube’s weekly list of Top 100 Music Videos Global. With this he has beaten the likes of Rose and Bruno Mars’ APT and Ed Sheeran’s Sapphire.

Sanju Rathod
Sanju Rathod

Talking to us, he says, “Challenges badh gaye hain. Of course I feel good, that all of this is happening with Marathi music, aisa hua nahi tha kabhi. Back to back hits dena ek artist ke liye bahaut bada task hota hai.”

Does he place a lot of importance on the numbers his songs fetch though? Like Shaky, written, composed and performed by Sanju, with music production by G-Spark, has notched up 3.4 million reels on Instagram so far. He quips, “Aisa nahi hai ki pehle main achhe gaane nahi banata tha. But logon ko mere baare mein pata hi nahi tha. Dimple, one of my songs, first went viral, then Bappa, and that’s how people got to know about me. My audience has increased, that’s how I look at it. Every artist wants to make a good song which goes viral. As the artist grows, the numbers increase. I also am attentive towards what my Marathi audince wants. I don’t focus on just making music which gets the numbers but rather one which my listeners will like. Numbers follow.”

Sanju shares that Gulabi Sadi will soon be featured in a Bollywood film, “I got a lot of calls after that song from filmmakers and composers. I think the same might happen with Shaky. Ek chhote se gaaon se aaye artist, jo sapne dekhta tha aise,uske liye yeh sab bada hai. Shayad kahin na kahin I have achieved that.”

  • Rishabh Suri
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Rishabh Suri

    Rishabh Suri is an Assistant Editor, film critic, and professional overthinker of plot points. He writes for HT City, keeping pace with an industry where news cycles expire long before the popcorn gets cold. He completed his graduation in English Honours from Kirori Mal College, followed by a Master’s degree in English Literature-effectively training his brain to over-analyse classic texts before applying those exact same skills to 3-hour Bollywood blockbusters. He got into the profession when he had barely graduated from college and has been at HT ever since. At HT, Rishabh reviews films with a simple rule: skip the dense academic jargon and get straight to the point. Beyond reviews, as Assistant Editor, he helps navigate the broader circus of showbiz, tracking everything from OTT shifts to sudden box office panics. In a beat driven by loud PR machinery and carefully scripted answers, Rishabh prefers cutting through the noise to focus on how stories get made and why trends shift. When he isn’t writing against a deadline, he is usually sitting in a dark theater, compulsively memorising dialogues. For Rishabh, analysing movies isn't just a day job- it’s a habit he couldn't turn off even if he tried.Read More