Pentagram (Indian band)
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Pentagram is a four-piece Indian rock/electronica band started in 1994 in
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
.
Pentagram is fronted by
Vishal Dadlani Vishal Dadlani (born 28 June 1973) is an Indian singer, songwriter and music composer. He is one half of the duo Vishal–Shekhar, Front Man and vocalist of one of India's leading rock bands called Pentagram. As a singer he has sung various ...
(one half of the film music producing duo
Vishal–Shekhar Vishal–Shekhar are an Indian music composer, production, singing and songwriting duo consisting of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani from Mumbai. Known predominantly for their work as music composers in Hindi cinema, Vishal–Shekhar have a ...
) with Randolph Correia on guitars, Clyde D'souza on guitars, Papal Mane on bass and Shiraz Bhattacharya on drums. All of whom have recently been actively involved in the Bollywood music business.


History


Formation (1993–1995)

Pentagram started off in 1995, when Dadlani met drummer Shiraz Bhattacharya in a one show band called Nostalgia where Dadlani played the bass and handled vocal duties and
Shekhar Ravjiani Shekhar Ravjiani is an Indian singer, music director, record producer and actor. He is one half of the Bollywood composing/producing duo Vishal–Shekhar, since 1999. Personal life Ravjiani was born in a Kutchi family. He lives in South Mumbai ...
played keyboards. They decided to form their own band and roped in Clyde D’Souza as guitarist. Randolph Correia joined in on the guitars the following year and Papal Mane joined in as bassist while Dadlani focussed on Vocals. Pentagram received their initial recognition and fame by winning three major rock competitions at
IIT Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was ...
,
IIT Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...
and
IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top rank ...
. Of these, Livewire, the annual band competition at Mood Indigo landed them a record deal. While the group started off as a rock/alt-rock band, they slowly drifted towards electronica and industrial sounds. Live performances in the latter quarter of their career have witnessed cover renditions of
Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...
, The Prodigy, Depeche Mode, etc.


We Are Not Listening (1996–2001)

This record deal with Plus Music led to the release of their debut album ''We Are Not Listening'' in 1996. To support their debut, the band released two videos (''The Ignorant 1'' and ''Yoo'') which were frequently played on music channels, but failed to generate substantial sales. Pentagram won MTV India's Artist of the Month award in 1997 and also won the Channel V awards for Best Live Band and Best Indian Band in 1997 and 1998. They were featured on Channel V's ''Big Gig'' show, an hour-long live performance, which was plagued with bad sound. During the Kargil war, Pentagram recorded and released India's first exclusive-to-internet song, "The Price of Bullets", which featured famous poet Javed Akhtar and popular Indian classical artist
Shankar Mahadevan Shankar Mahadevan (born 3 March 1967) is an Indian singer and composer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio that writes music for Indian films. Personal life and early career Shankar Mahadevan was born in Chembur, Mumbai into a Tam ...
. As a minor publicity stunt that failed, the video, directed by Farhan Akhtar, was blacked out by channels across the board for being "too politically loaded". It was then added as a bonus track on their second album ''Up''.


Up (2002–2006)

The second album, ''Up'' (2002) saw the band's sound evolve into deliberate, definitive electro rock. The album went on to sell only 15,000 copies. Clyde D’Souza quit that year and Randolph Correia took on guitars and groove box. Dadlani found fame as a
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
music composer, singer and lyricist with movies like
Jhankaar Beats ''Jhankaar Beats'' is a 2003 Indian musical comedy film written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh in his feature directorial debut and produced by Pritish Nandy Communications. It stars Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Suri, Rahul Bose, debutant Shayan Munshi, Rin ...
,
Bluffmaster! ''Bluffmaster!'' is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film directed by Rohan Sippy and produced by Ramesh Sippy. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Mishra, Boman Irani and Nana Patekar. It is a ...
and
Salaam Namaste ''Salaam Namaste'' () is a 2005 Indian romantic comedy film, directed by first-time director Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta in their fo ...
. Pentagram have had a brief touring history outside India; including the Sundance Music Festival in Estonia in 2003. In 2005, Pentagram became the first Indian band to play at the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK.


It’s OK, It’s All Good (2007–2010)

Pentagram released their third album ''It’s OK, It’s All Good'' in 2007 on their own record label, Pentagram Music. The first single off this album "Voice" won the Song Of The Year and vocalist Vishal was awarded Vocalist Of The Year at the Jack Daniel's Annual Indian Rock Awards. "Voice" also received considerable airplay on VH1 India. The song was later used in a music video competition by the channel and Nokia, and the video that has been released features the contributions of various fans across India who sent in their videos. Guitarist Correia set up his other band, Shaa'ir and Func in 2007 with New York-born singer
Monica Dogra Monica Dogra is an American musician and actress. She has acted in six feature films, as well as released five studio albums with the band Shaa’ir and func. She is a member on the judging panel of India's first English music talent show, The St ...
.


Bloodywood (2011–2013)

The band released their latest studio album in March 2011. It was named ''Bloodywood'', representing the anti-thesis to the mainstream. The band also performed at Sympulse, the annual cultural festival of Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies,
Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
. In the same year, episodes of Penta TV which featured behind-the-scenes videos of the band's shows and tours were added to their site. In 2013, they recorded the song ''Be a Hero'', the Star Movies Action theme for Star Movies Action.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine


Band members

;Current members *Vishal Dadlani – vocals (1993–present) *Papal Mane – bass (1994–present) *Randolph Correia – guitar (1993–present) *Shiraz Bhattacharya – drums (1993–present) ;Former members *Clyde D’Souza – guitar (1993–2002)


Discography

*''We're Not Listening'' (1996 Plus Music) *''Up'' (2002 Pentagram Music,
Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...
) *'' It's OK, It's All Good'' (2007 Pentagram Music) *''Bloodywood'' (2011, Pentagram Music) *''There'' (2019, Pentagram Music)


References


External links


Official Website of Pentagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pentagram Indian musical groups Musical groups established in 1994