Benny Dayal had to struggle a lot to find a firm stand in the Indian music industry. In a chat with Shrabasti Mallik, he recounts how he knocked on every door for work before he got a call from AR Rahman
Do you want to become a singerIJ” “look at your voice, which actor will it suitIJ” These were the reactions and comments that Benny Dayal got when he was struggling to make it big in the industry. But so strong was his determination that he did not take these remarks to heart. He was confident. “It was something that made me want to be really good, you know. I always knew in my heart that what I was doing and was capable of doing, was far more. And sometimes I feel that the way I do things, not everyone will be able to do it. I knew that I was doing something really different,” he said.
A few years later today, no party is complete without him. From Pappu can’t dance to Batameez dil — he has not only given us a number of chartbusters but has also lent is voice to some of the leading actors in the industry today.
Growing up in Abu Dhabi, Dayal was fairly frequent with inter school and inter club competitions. “That was my stage for exposure,” he said. He came to India to complete his college education. “But my focus was on music,” he stressed. After he graduated with Commerce, he continued with a post graduate diploma in journalism. “After that I was jobless,” he chuckled. “Even within that I was with music. I did S5 (his band). But everyone thought that we had a contract or something and that we cannot sing for any movies. But then the contract really did not matter because nothing was being done from their behalf for the S5 group. After that everyone began figuring out their lives. Some got married and some moved to other cities for doing music. And I was stranded doing nothing. So I took up the job of an HR,” he added.
luck came calling when three days into the job, he got a call from AR Rahman’s office. To Dayal, it was not about ‘How did that happenIJ’ it was about, ‘Why did it happen thenIJ’ “That was my first question. It’s like all this while I was looking for all the work that I could do and three days after joining a job, this happens. Then I realised probably that was how God wanted me to move forward. It was like; you struggled without work, now struggle with work. But then the word struggle was out and it was just challenge. And the rest was history,” he said.
When it comes to Rahman, Dayal becomes emotional. He considers the maestro his guru. “Rahman sir can work any time. He would come up with an idea any time and would want to get that done immediately. He has a creative fire that is burning and before that fizzles down he has to get it done,” he pointed out.
While we were talking about his success in the industry we realised that every song that he has sung, holds a different meaning for him. Yes, Pappu can’t dance might have been his first songs for Bollywood but he said, “It was Kaise mujhe tum mil gayi that put me on the map.” And songs like Tarkeebein, Dum dum (from Band Baaja Baaraat) and Aadat se majboor (ladies vs Ricky Bahl) were with which he reinvented himself. “They were fresh and so was the face. Ranveer was this guy...so full of life. I remember meeting him in Yash Raj Studios and he said, ‘Your song is opening the movie’,” he recalled.
Dayal is one of the very few artistes from the South who has successfully made his way into the Hindi film industry. He pointed out that it was not chance. He wanted that happen. He elaborated, “In the South we had a lot of North Indian stars coming in and singing like Shreya Ghoshal or Sukhwinder sir or Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan — everyone of them have sung in Tamil. And I have always said to my self, ‘How awesome that is. They are famous there and they get recorded here for Tamil songs.’ I was there singing in the South and doing quite well and I was like, ‘I want that thing to happen for me the other way round.’ So I always made the effort to meet people.”
Independent music has always been a favourite and he said that the current indie music scenario is in a good stage. In fact he began his career with independent music. “I started by making independent music. S5 was the first south Indian pop vocal band. It was like Band of Boys or Viva of South India. I have always been writing my own songs and performing covers with bands. So it has been always moving forward that way and now I am really happy because I am collaborating with artistes like Karsh Kale and Nucleya,” he added.
Although Dayal carries the tag of having sung songs like Talli, Daru desi, Baiman, Besharam and Kamina, he claims to be none of these guys. The singer laughed, “I am a quite grounded guy and somehow all the weird stuff comes to my songs.”
He also spoke of his future project — to sing stuff he has never sung before. “All the songs that I will be working on have a new angle and arrangement. It’s new,” he rounded up.