Sing and shake it like Benny Dayal!
The singer speaks about his band and other projects
By : pramita bose
Update: 2014-08-25 21:06 GMT
His songs can sweep you off your feet as well as move you to tears. He is the bindaas Bollywood singer with no ‘badtameez dil’ but a soft, adorable heart to gloat over. Although he sang Papu Can’t Dance Saala, yet he dances all the way to glory at all his stage shows from start to finish. Meet Benny Dayal, a perfect livewire at open-air gigs and inside a compact studio. One who promulgates that there is no alternative to hardwork, unfailingly makes sure to put in his whole heart and soul while rendering a song over the mike.
“I try and give my 100 per cent so that nothing lags behind,” he maintains. Pushing the envelope with every performance, this 30-year-old Taurean has never learnt to compromise on quality work. And talking about his effervescent nature, the Daaru Desi-Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu-Locha-e-Ulfat hitmaker confesses that he can’t stop stomping his feet on the floor while crooning his numbers. Currently, his two soulful romantic ballads Hum Na Rahe Hum from the upcoming sci-fi monster-thriller Creature 3D and Kabhi Ruhani Kabhi Rumani from the much-awaited Emraan Hashmi starrer Raja Natwarlal are leading the music charts. The audio- release from the second flick contains a beautiful Sufi number and a foot-tapping party track to his credit.
Native of Kerala, Benny was born and brought up in Abu Dhabi. Language was never an issue for him as he is convincingly comfortable in any given regional lingo. And of course, Middle-Eastern influences flowed into his consciousness, while growing up. “I used to sing in Arabic at various stage competitions. So my diction was pretty near perfect,” he shares. “See, I want to change this stereotypical perception built around a singer, who shouldn’t be confined to a single style but attempt to explore and expand his range. If a mastiwala song works, melody and love-songs must work too,” comes his straight-faced assertion.
Though his playback career has already hit a purple patch with innumerable successful soundtracks produced under noted composers, Benny is not one to confine his possibilities to one channel alone. “For the past three years, I’ve been touring around with my band Funktuation and we are already featured in MTV Unplugged,” he says. Shortly, the star-entertainer will head for a Toronto tour along with his band and then move onto Nigeria. It’s better to be an avid listener than a learner of technical nitty-gritties, says the singer.
Having composed a track called Tamil Fever for Sony Music’s Project Resound Headphones, Benny co-ordinated with a fellow producer from Delhi Nucleya. “The video is a must-watch for it’s standards,” he says.