‘Your passion takes you further as a musician’

Benny Dayal from Kerala is the kind of singer who never disappoints his fans with his hit numbers. He has provided a variety of soundtracks from “Kaise mujhe” to “Badtameez dil”. Known for his versatility and huge hits, Dayal has managed to create a huge fan following across the country.

For Dayal, music was the only passion he grew up with. “I used to sing in school and always wanted to work as a musician. Then I came to Chennai for my college and competing at college level, I realised that I am getting better and better and eventually started approaching musicians and composers in Chennai. But nothing worked out. Eventually, I met Mr. [A.R.] Rahman and it started,” Dayal told Guardian 20.

For the singer, success is aproduct of one’s passion. “I never expected how far I would go but I always wanted to do music. I want to go further from where I am today,” adds Dayal.

Dayal said that working with A.R. Rahman has been a surreal experience for him. “You never expect such things to happen but it happens according the way it should suppose to be so there is no design how things fall on place. It’s a great feeling altogether,” he says.

Dayal believes that “Pappu can’t dance Saala” from the film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na came as the biggest break in his career.

Not only popular Hindi Bollywood songs, Dayal finds regional songs equally important as Hindi songs. Proving his versatility as a singer, Dayal has sung many regional songs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada. “Every industry is part of our country. I come from South India and I started with South first before coming to Bollywood. It is of same priority as my Bollywood songs.”

He also believes that singing in various languages also adds to one’s popularity and nurtures one as a singer. He says, “The more languages you sing in, more people will know you. When you sing a lot of Hindi songs, people don’t hear a lot of it and when they listen they wish to hear your voice in their own language and when you end up singing something beautiful in their own language, they are extremely happy, plus it increases your value as a musician and increases your name in the country and also increases your repertoire as a singer.”

He may have sung for many famous actors, but it is on actor Ranveer Singh that his voice sounds the most suitable.

“Singers like S.P. Bala Subramanyam and Kishore Kumar Sir were not classically trained but they were phenomenal singers. It is your passion that takes you further.” 

Having participated in famous platforms like Coke Studio, he says, “It makes people realise I not only sing film songs but also other contents well. But they are all in the same language but differ musically because in the film it is simpler and straightforward to the audience while over here, it is aesthetically way more superior,” he said.

He looks up to artists like A.R. Rahman, Vishal Shekhar, Pritam, Amit Trivedi, Salim Sulaiman, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Vishal Bhardwaj.

Dayal is partly trained in classical music but believes that it is not necessary to be trained in classical music. He says,“Singers like S.P. Bala Subramanyam and Kishore Kumar Sir were not classically trained but they were phenomenal singers. It is your passion that takes you further.”

Speaking about his future projects, tours, collaborations, he says, “I am working on my album this year. And there will be many more collaborations in the upcoming future.”