Terry Batth and his brother, Jag, get hounded for autographs at movie theatres and malls here. Their latest CD sold more than 300,000 copies in India, and their single, Dil Mangde Tera, is so popular you can download ring tones of the hit to your cellphone.
But the men, mobbed in Mumbai last summer during a debut tour of India, are unknown to mainstream pop fans in Canada. Outside the Indo-Canadian community, few in this country have heard of this Punjabi pop sensation called Mantra.
Mr. Batth and his circle of singer friends say Surrey - that Vancouver suburb better known for uninspired urban sprawl than musical inspiration - is the North American hub for a new wave of Indo-Canadian pop singers.
"Surrey is hot," Mr. Batth said. "If you're in India and you say you're from Surrey, they go: 'Wow, man, that's where it's at.' "
Most of the up-and-coming acts in India are from Surrey, Mr. Batth said. The hottest expat Punjabi singer in India right now is Jazzy B, also known as Jaswinder Singh Bains to his friends from high school in Surrey. He has sold millions of records and divides his time between India, England and Surrey.
But Mr. Batth wants to take Indian pop to a broader North American audience. So he set up a recording studio in an industrial mall in the heart of Surrey, which has become a beacon for young Indo-Canadian acts with stars in their eyes.
Each day, they gather to rehearse and record and critique one another's videos. Some, like Harj Uppal, a 24-year-old Grade 8 teacher with big brown eyes and a bigger voice, arrive after they've finished their day jobs.
Last week, Sanjay Seran, or San-J, as he's known in the music press, was trying out a song - the first he's recorded that has English as well as Punjabi lyrics. San-J and his partner, Luv (LV) Randhawa, make up the group Signia. Like Mantra, Signia has a fan base in India and has generated buzz on world music websites.
Mr. Batth, 28, who was born in England and moved to Canada in his early 20s with his family, has a dream of being much more than a local hero.
He wants to see Mantra videos on MuchMusic and MTV, not just on multicultural cable channels. He wants Dil Mangde Tera played in nightclubs in downtown Vancouver - without his requesting it. And he wants non-Indians to pay to see Mantra in concert.
And the duo wants this mainstream crossover to occur while the singers stay put in Surrey.
"All the Canadian artists run to America to make it," said Jag Batth, 23. "We're proud to be where we are. There's such a concentration of Punjabi culture here, it's inspiring. We want to be able to live our lives here."
While the music has its roots in India's northern Punjab, the Surrey singers' sound is distinctly Canadian - West Coast Indo-Canadian, for that matter.
With more than 100,000 residents of Punjabi origin, the Vancouver area has one of the largest concentrations of Punjabis outside India. A mainstay of the culture is Bhangra music, which dates back centuries and was performed by farmers during harvest festivals. Its most distinguishing characteristic is the throbbing beat of the barrel-shaped dhol drum.
Thousands of second-generation Indo-Canadians in B.C.'s Lower Mainland grew up listening to the distinctive folk music at weddings and family celebrations. There are only a handful of themes in Punjabi music, Jag Batth said with a laugh. "Girls, lost love and good times. Oh, and missing the Punjab." The lyrics, he said, are traditional and often repetitive.
Punjabi pop is an outgrowth of this folk music and is the most popular form of music in India outside Bollywood musical productions.
The Surrey singers have further modernized the genre, adding English lyrics and producing videos geared for MuchMusic audiences. Signia's video, Bhangre, which was filmed at locations in Bombay and Vancouver's Westside, has a gritty, urban North American feel replete with a gang of dancers performing hip-hop moves and a scantily clad female foil, the Indo-Canadian girl rapper, Lil' D.
On video, San-J, 25, affects a menacing rapper attitude. In person, the University of British Columbia graduate is articulate, upbeat and polite. Signia's music is an amalgam of cultures, he said, just like his background.
Growing up in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, San-J spoke English to his parents and Punjabi with his grandmother. Most of his friends were Chinese or Filipino. He sang in the school choir and listened to rock and hip-hop. At UBC, he joined a Bhangra club and was introduced to Surrey-raised Indo-Canadians.
"The [Indo-Canadians]from Surrey and Vancouver are more traditional in their thinking and the way they are. Being in the Bhangra club really opened me up to the Indian scene."
But the multicultural Canada that nurtured the singers' interest in the music of their homeland might also prevent them from developing a mainstream audience.
"It's really weird how little people outside the Indo-Canadian community know about us," Terry Batth said.
In Canada, both Mantra and Signia have played in big venues, including cavernous Pacific Coliseum, but the gigs were part of the cultural circuit.
In January, Signia was the halftime act at a North American Bhangra dance competition in Vancouver. And last weekend, Mantra, Signia and Ms. Uppal performed at a downtown Vancouver shopping centre for a Chinese New Year concert. Most in the audience were non-Indian.
"It was awesome," San-J said. "Everyone was totally open to us. They loved it. I think it's the best we've performed."