Bengaluru hosts Anuv Jain's emotional finale before global tour

In Urdu, dastakhat means signature. A name written at the end of a letter. For Anuv Jain, however, Dastakhat is the final chapter in a trilogy of tours that began with Dastakein in 2021 and led to Guldasta in 2023. Dastakhat marks the third of this trio and the three are connected through simple wordplay. Dastakhat means knocks, Guldasta means a bouquet and Dastakhat means a signature. What began as a knock on unfamiliar doors slowly turned into an offering of flowers and now arrives as a name written at the end of a letter.

Bengaluru marks the final leg of the tour in India before it moves overseas. “It doesn‘t feel like a chapter that‘s been closed,” he opens, adding, “it feels like so many chapters that have been opened.” There is something telling about that answer. Anuv has built his career slowly on sincerity. He began writing songs at 16 and at 21, he uploaded them online.

Baarishein, written when he was 17 for someone he loved, found its audience gradually and went on to become one of his most streamed tracks. Over the years, songs like Alag Aasmaan, Gul, Husn and Jo Tum Mere Ho have taken his music across charts and playlists. Husn crossed 50 million streams within its first month and later surpassed 300 million across platforms.

Even as the numbers grew, his music remained simple. Over time — the way he lays his feelings bare became his signature (dastakhat) — long before the tour adopted the word. On this tour, that openness followed him onto the stage. During recent shows, he has been visibly emotional while performing older songs.

“They still feel very fresh in my head,” he says. The emotion that surfaced on stage came from somewhere else. The months leading up to the tour were filled with rehearsals and chatter around his personal life. When the lights came on and the show began to move as he had imagined, he could see the fruits of those months of hard work come alive in front of him. “It felt really amazing and it was very emotional for me to just stand on stage and perform and finally see the entire vision come to life,” he avers.

The structure of his live shows has grown as well. “The entire show has changed since I’ve been performing these songs in an acoustic manner. Now, I have a band and the entire thing feels very different and so beautiful,” he tells us. If the tour carries the assurance of a signature, Inaam (his latest release) carries a bruise. Released in December 2025, Inaam circles the idea of being called a reward and then feeling reduced to one. It speaks of promises, fading attention and the hurt of being misunderstood.

What does he feel about namma uru, we ask? He tells us that Bengaluru holds a memory from his early days. It was one of the first cities he toured in 2021. When we ask him how he sees the audience here, he chooses his words carefully. “One word that I would like to use for Bengaluru is polished,” he smiles. He speaks of a calm energy and a listening culture that meets his music with attention.

As the tour continues until October 2026, he is already thinking about what comes next. “I’m working on some of my best work and some of the most beautiful songs that I’ve ever made,” he gushes. “There might also be a short trip with my family once the tour ends, but I’m just going to come back and dive right into making new music once again,” he concludes.

`2,500 onwards. February 22, 6.30 pm onwards. At Phoenix Marketcity, Whitefield.

Written by Anoushka Kundu