From a 40-song home demo and producers who said rock doesn't happen in Bengali to Fossils 7 on Spotify's Rock in India: how Rupam Islam's Kolkata band turned Bangla rock into a movement.

Kolkata's record producers once told Rupam Islam that rock does not happen in Bengali. Today a Bengali song of almost eleven minutes by his band sits on Spotify's Rock in India playlist. That, in short, is the Fossils band history: a group that refused to soften its sound until the city changed its mind.

Fossils are a Bangla rock band from Kolkata, formed in 1998 by singer-songwriter Rupam Islam. Their self-titled debut arrived on Asha Audio in April 2002, and the albums that followed turned heavy, psychologically raw Bengali rock into a mass movement. In February 2026 they released Fossils 7, and in our 13 October 2026 snapshot of Rock in India, three of its songs appear: "Khudharto Mangsashi" (No. 13), "Jodi Tumi" (No. 18) and "Long Drive-e Wrong Drive-e" (No. 23). We first met them in our survey of regional rock bands in India; this is the fuller story.

Fossils band at a glance

  • Origin: Kolkata, West Bengal; formed 1998, with 9 January kept as the band's official birthday
  • Founder: Rupam Islam (vocals, lyrics, songwriting)
  • Current lineup: Rupam Islam, Allan Temjen Ao (lead guitar), Deep Ghosh (rhythm guitar), Prasenjit "Pom" Chakraborty (bass) and Tanmoy Das (drums)
  • Debut: Fossils (Asha Audio, released 13 April 2002), featuring "Ekla Ghar", "Hasnuhana", "Nemesis" and "Aaro Ekbaar"
  • Sound: Bengali hard rock with blues, psychedelia and grunge, and psychoanalytical lyrics
  • Latest album: Fossils 7 (13 February 2026, ℗ Bangla Rock), six songs across 44 minutes
  • On Rock in India (13 Oct 2026): "Khudharto Mangsashi", "Jodi Tumi", "Long Drive-e Wrong Drive-e"

How did the Fossils band begin?

Rupam Islam was born to musician parents and, by his own account to Rolling Stone India in 2008, was singing on stage at four. His mother, the lyricist Chhandita Islam, died in 1992. Much of the first Fossils album was written in the small room on Shakespeare Sarani where he largely kept to himself in the turbulent years that followed. In the mid-1990s he recorded a two-cassette demo, Rupam's 40 Songs, at home. "This was around the mid-Nineties when I was recording a song a day," he said, adding that he told critics that if they did not like the third song, they might like the 33rd.

HMV released his solo album Tor Bhorsate in 1998 but, Rupam recalled, declined to push it. He then formed Fossils, the band's official biography says, with colleagues who wanted to push contemporary Bengali rock forward. According to the band's documented history, Rupam announced the name from the stage at Najrul Mancha on 9 January 1999, at HMV's Gaan 99 event. Guitarist Deep Ghosh suggested it, borrowing from a line in Rupam's own lyric "Khnoro Aamar Fossil". "We were certain our music would remain so deep underground that it would only see the light of day, when 'excavated' by future generations," Rupam told Kindle Magazine in 2014.

The early reception justified that pessimism. "There have been occasions when organisers publicly asked us off the stage," Deep told Rolling Stone India. "We had to bear such insults since our music lacked the traditional Bengali character." Allan Ao still recalls a City College gig where three listeners ran the moment his guitar kicked into distortion.

Why was the Fossils debut a risk?

When the band brought in a new demo, Rupam told The Telegraph in 2023, everyone wanted a soft fusion sound, and the company owners and producers said: "Banglaye tow rock hoy na" (rock doesn't happen in Bengali). Asha Audio, a small label in central Kolkata, took the chance. Mahua Lahiri of the company called the band "a risk" like no other: "It was heavier and way darker than anything attempted before, even by other Bengali rock bands."

Fossils was released on 13 April 2002, and for a year, Rupam says, nobody bought or heard it. Then Aamar FM began playing "Ekla Ghar" and "Hasnuhana", unprompted. By 2008, Rolling Stone India reported, the debut had sold 2.5 lakh copies. Rupam is unsentimental about the biggest hit, admitting that "Ekla Ghar" loosely echoes the Eagles' "Hotel California": "It's no longer a song I feel proud of."

What does Fossils sound like?

Rolling Stone India heard, in 2008, Eighties melody-driven glam and progressive rock married to gloomy post-Nineties grunge. Rupam names his own starting point plainly: "Without Kurt Cobain, I would never have started writing." Deep has explained that the band often designs the music around Rupam's lyrics and melody, which is why so many songs lean on "a dark approach" to the guitars.

Fossils 2 (2004) pushed harder. It gave Bengali rock "Acid", "Bicycle Chor" and "Harano Padak", which Rupam calls the first Bangla punk song. Steve Fallone mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York, a first for a Bengali band, Rolling Stone India noted. Drummer Tanmoy Das says hearing it sent him towards heavy metal: "If Acid hadn't released, I would have never done metal." That lineage runs straight into the scene we mapped in Indian metal bands on Rock in India.

Fossils albums: from Mission F to a graphic-novel concept record

Every record, Rupam told The Telegraph, was meant to challenge the last. Mission F was a theme album for the Kolkata Police Friendship Cup football tournament and included "Ekaa Nao", recorded with Usha Uthup for HIV awareness. Apodaartho (2007), which the band call Bengal's first music video album, drew such a crowd to Music World on Park Street that Rupam launched it alone, standing on a stool, before his bandmates arrived.

Fossils 3 (2009) was a concept album packaged with a graphic novel, with live strings by Abraham Mazumder and electronic tabla by Mayookh Bhaumik. Fossils 4 (2013) returned to the band's first approach. Fossils 5 (2017) and Fossils 6 (2019) followed. Outside the band, Rupam won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer at the 57th National Film Awards for the film Mahanagar@Kolkata.

Who are the Fossils band members?

The lineup that played the 25th-anniversary show in 2023, and spoke to Rolling Stone India in 2026, is Rupam Islam, Allan Temjen Ao, Deep Ghosh, Prasenjit "Pom" Chakraborty and Tanmoy Das. Tanmoy joined in 2010; his first show was at Jadavpur University. Pom had been the band's sound engineer; at his first show as bassist, in Bangalore, he was still keeping an eye on the sound console.

Pom replaced Chandramouli Biswas, who was with Fossils from 2000 to 2018, first on guitar and then bass, and left for health reasons, according to band manager Rupsha Dasgupta. When Chandramouli died in January 2025, aged 48, the band heard on the way to a show in Kalyani. "I never thought Fossils would perform without him," Rupam told the crowd that night.

Asked what keeps the group together, Rupam rejects the idea of a single leader: "There is no dadagiri... We feel that we don't need tigers; we are humans and let's behave like humans."

Fossils 7 and the Rock in India playlist

The band's 25th-anniversary concert, Fossils Ponchobingshoti, drew more than 7,000 people to Orchid Garden in south Kolkata on 9 January 2023, the Times of India reported. In September 2025 they toured North America, including Toronto, billed as their first Canadian show, and Calgary.

Fossils 7 arrived on 13 February 2026. According to Rolling Stone India's interview with the band, it passed 100,000 plays within 17 hours and topped the iTunes India all-genres chart. Rupam said it began as a pre-COVID concept, with the last song finished in 2023, so it moves "from uncertainty to optimism". Allan said the songs were recorded exactly as they would be played live: "So there's no shift — it's seamless." Rupam singles out "Jodi Tumi" because "it has a melodic structure that feels new."

On Spotify's Rock in India playlist, all three Fossils entries come from this album. Start with the album opener "Khudharto Mangsashi", which runs just under eleven minutes, then "Jodi Tumi" and "Long Drive-e Wrong Drive-e". Then go back to "Ekla Ghar", "Hasnuhana" and "Bishakto Manush", still among the band's most played songs on Spotify.

Why do Fossils still matter?

Fossils proved something every regional band on Rock in India now benefits from: a band can sing in its own language, refuse to sweeten its sound, and still fill grounds. Their story sits naturally beside our features on the DIY roots of Rock in India and how regional sounds are reshaping Indian music. "We've simply narrated what happened," Rupam said of Fossils 7's success. "It wasn't driven by chasing numbers." His advice to younger bands is just as plain: "Keep doing what you believe in."

FAQ

Who are the members of the Fossils band?

Rupam Islam (vocals), Allan Temjen Ao (lead guitar), Deep Ghosh (rhythm guitar), Prasenjit "Pom" Chakraborty (bass) and Tanmoy Das (drums). Former bassist Chandramouli Biswas played with the band from 2000 to 2018.

When was Fossils formed?

Fossils formed in Kolkata in 1998 and treat 9 January as their official birthday; the name was first announced on stage at Najrul Mancha on 9 January 1999. Their debut album, Fossils, was released on 13 April 2002.

What are Fossils' most famous songs?

"Ekla Ghar", "Hasnuhana", "Aaro Ekbaar", "Bishakto Manush", "Acid" and "Bicycle Chor". From Fossils 7 (2026), "Khudharto Mangsashi", "Jodi Tumi" and "Long Drive-e Wrong Drive-e" are on Spotify's Rock in India.

Is Fossils an independent band?

Yes. Their early albums came out on the small Kolkata label Asha Audio, and Fossils 7 (℗ 2026 Bangla Rock) was described by Rolling Stone India as an independently released record.

Sources

Cover photo: Rupam Islam of Fossils at the 38th International Kolkata Book Fair, Kolkata, 9 February 2014, by Biswarup Ganguly via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 3.0. Modified: cropped and resized to 1200×630; metadata stripped.