If you use social media, or are not living under the rock, you must have heard about Bhajan Clubbing.
What started as a quirky niche or a passing Instagram trend is now fast emerging as a new cultural language for urban India, where devotional music meets the scale, sound and energy of live concerts.
Think pounding drums, electric guitars, lights, chanting crowds and not a drop of alcohol in sight. Instead of cocktails, there is chai. Instead of DJs, there are bhajans. And instead of escape, there is collective emotion.
Across cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, Bhajan Clubbing nights are being packed out by young audiences looking for something that feels both rooted and relevant.
In a time when nightlife has long been associated with intoxication and excess, this format offers a sober high built on music, faith and community.
In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, the band at the heart of this movement opened up about why Bhajan Clubbing exists at all and why it seems to have arrived at exactly the right moment.
Meet The Band Behind Bhajan Clubbing
Keshavam is a devotional rock band that blends traditional bhajans with modern rock elements, centring its music around Krishna bhakti and Hindu devotional themes. The band has two lead singers, Lovish Sheetal and Prakriti Sharma Arora and was started two years ago.
Live sankirtans are performed by the band at Janmashtami celebrations, weddings and large spiritual gatherings across India, including Delhi, Kolkata, Vrindavan and Bilaspur. Keshavam is also active across Instagram, YouTube, Spotify and JioSaavn, where clips from their high-energy performances often go viral.
While devotional music itself is hardly new, what sets Keshavam apart is scale and intent. Bhajans are not being softened or diluted. They are being amplified, staged and performed with the same seriousness that mainstream concerts receive. According to the band, that distinction matters.
"We were deeply connected to bhajans, but we also came from a generation raised on concerts, festivals and club culture," the members shared. "There was a visible gap. Devotion existed, music existed, youth existed, but they were never allowed to meet on equal terms."
The motivation, they explained, was not to modernise bhajans, but to re-present them. "We didn't want to modernise bhajans. We wanted to give them the same scale, energy and respect that live music gets. Why should devotion feel passive when it can feel powerful?" the band members shared.
How The Idea Took Shape
Interestingly, Bhajan Clubbing did not begin as a grand business plan.
"We noticed how people reacted when bhajans were played in informal settings: cars, jam sessions, late nights there was emotion, singing, even dancing. That's when it clicked. the problem wasn't the content, it was the format. We asked ourselves what if bhajans were produced, staged, and performed like a concert instead of a satsang?" the band recalled.
Once the question was asked of what bhajans would look like if staged like concerts rather than satsangs, the direction became clear. Inspiration was also drawn from artists like Radhika Das and Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma, whose large-scale devotional concerts proved that spiritual music could command serious crowds.
Why The Rise Feels Sudden
Bhajan Clubbing may appear to have exploded overnight, but the band believes the demand had been building for years.
"The rise isn't sudden. It's delayed," they said, half-jokingly adding, "Of course it was us, we had a first-mover advantage."
More seriously, they pointed to a broader shift among young Indians.
"Young India has been looking for meaning beyond escapism. Clubbing offered release, but not connection. Bhajan Clubbing offers community, identity and emotional release, without guilt or hangovers," says Lovish.
Social media, live reels and a generation increasingly comfortable expressing faith publicly only accelerated what was already waiting to surface.
Keshavam started the band two years ago, and the journey, by their own admission, was far from straightforward. Early on, categorisation became a problem.
"We were too loud for bhajans and too devotional for wedding shows," they explained. "People didn't know where to place us."
That uncertainty faded once audiences experienced the format live. A major turning point came with Delhi's first successful Bhajan Clubbing concert. It proved viability, scale and sustainability. "It showed this wasn't niche. It was here to stay."
A Concert For Gen Z And Millennials
One of the most striking aspects of Bhajan Clubbing is its audience. While the strongest demographic remains 18 to 35-year-old urban youth, the appeal cuts across generations.
"The best part is watching people who've never stepped into a temple sing bhajans at the top of their lungs. Parents, families and even seniors connect instantly. It's one of the few formats where generations overlap without friction," they shared.
When Bhajan Clubbing Became A Movement
For the band, the shift from experiment to movement was marked by a simple but powerful realisation. People were choosing Bhajan Clubbing over conventional clubbing not because it was new, but because it felt right.
Lovish from the band reflected, "We realised this wasn't entertainment alone. It was dharma in a contemporary form."
Prakriti added that the goal was never disruption for its own sake. "We weren't trying to disrupt nightlife. We were trying to restore balance. This format offers intensity without intoxication, celebration without escape," Prakriti said.
When thousands began singing bhajans like anthems, the conclusion became unavoidable. "This wasn't an experiment anymore. It was a cultural correction waiting to happen," she added.
Responding To Criticism
Sitting at the crossroads of religion, youth culture and identity, Bhajan Clubbing has also attracted scepticism. Accusations range from sanitising faith for Instagram to positioning itself as a counter to Sufi nights.
The band is clear in its response. "We're not sanitising faith or weaponising it. We're normalising it. This is about allowing young Indians to express their cultural roots confidently," the band concluded.
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