The emerging boy band from India OutStation have been on their first ticketed tour, The Friend Zone, having performed in Mumbai and Delhi. The band, consisting of Shayan Pettam, Hemang Singh, Kurien Sebastian, Mashaal Shaikh and Bhuvan Shetty, feels elated by the response they received from their audience and now they are planning to perform in Bengaluru and Pune this month, hoping to embark on a full India tour too.
OutStation also became one of four Indian artistes in YouTube Music’s Foundry Class of 2026, the platform’s global artist development program for emerging artistes. With very few boy bands having come out of India, the band seeks inspiration globally, especially with the K-pop band BTS . “We see bands like BTS and we draw inspiration from them, and even from older bands like One Direction. The band, who tasted success with their debut single Tum Se, got a push in their popularity after they appeared on comedian Samay Raina’s show India’s Got Latent recently, but what went in their mind was a completely different scenario. Right after right we went off stage, we were afraid that we wouldn’t even make it to the final cut. But we also understood that the music and comedy audience are very different. The band feels honoured to get the opportunity to have their music reach to a wider audience now. “Everything is on YouTube, so we kind of have the hack. Indians listen to Korean music as well, even though they don’t understand the words. Music is beyond language and we want Indian music elements to be a cool element in the West too.”
BTS literally made the K-pop industry for Korea and we want to do the same for India,” says Shayan. “Before going on that show, we were relying on Kurien because he’s the funniest of our group, but he actually let us down that day,” Hemang jokes, as Kurien responds, “The whole point of the show is that we have to be entertaining. A lot of friends called me saying they saw us on the billboards, even in LA, and that has been amazing,” Hemang shares, as Shayan adds, “We want Indian music to be out there and have white people singing Hindi songs.
