Pune’s Harshad Sathe and Saket Rao feel there is lack of venues in the city

Musician duo Harshad Sathe and Saket Rao say they don’t have to face any struggles right now as they are well known

Pune’s Harshad Sathe and Saket Rao started music “with no agenda” in their minds, but to have fun. And in just three years of them starting their band Nissima, which literally means boundless, they have started making waves. Ask them the reason behind their band’s name and Rao explains, “That is because we don’t have any genre or language limitations. We are a rock band with Hindustani classical-based vocals.”

“Music has always been an outlet of our energy, during both better and worse times,” says Sathe, while Rao adds, “Music’s been our shelter. We released our debut song in 2019 and it has been a great way to test the waters. That has encouraged us to compose more stuff. People have been kind to us and have loved our songs so far.”

Sathe, without any intentions to sound pompous, admits they don’t have any struggles to face. “Both of us are pretty well-known in the music circle by this time. It has never been daunting,” he reasons. However, despite being sought-after, the two have one issue with the music community in the city. “However, the biggest for us is to find venues to play our music,” Sathe says, while Rao elaborates, “There aren’t enough venues in Pune that support new music. It’s either Bollywood covers or old English covers.”