The man who gave us Badtameez Dil, Uff, Bang Bang or for the one’s looking for something closer to home hits like Omana Penne and Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, seems to have something new up sleeve. What has been a long time in the waiting for Benny Dayal fans has paid off. In his latest collaboration with Brodha V, Benny Dayal continues to be every bit as talented as we remember and has carried the song with much swag, if we are allowed to say.
Benny Dayal who was in Chennai, a day after the release of his latest single Round Round, is an entertainer through and through. We caught up with the man and his signature hat and here’s what he had to say.
Boy band vs playback singing
“Being part of a band teaches you to be humble and rooted, because you are making music for the benefit of the entire band not just yourself. As a playback singer you need to keep in mind things like the composer’s interests and how well it syncs with the movie that it’ll be part of. Playback singing is an another school of making music.”
Larger scope for freedom in playback music?
“To make any kind of music your heart has to be free. Music is so pure that you can’t adulterate it. And that is exactly why I make music.
First single in 2016
Round Round is not backed by a label. It is just the support that Brodha V and I have received from Saavan.com. The song has received tremendous love and we received almost 20,000 hits in a day.
Collaboration with Brodha V
Brodha V is a very raw talent. For those who don’t know his real name is Vignesh. The song was something that he came up with last year and we composed the song in just 15 minutes. It was magic the way the whole thing fell into place. We recorded the song once the lyrics were done, but we couldn’t get a label to back the song. So we decided to push it independently. We’ve got great reviews from Badshah, Raftar, Vishal Dadlani.. lot of love from Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. They have retweeted and shared the song on their pages, that’s the great part about social media.
Got ’em move like Jagger
Everyone on set was pretty amazed at my dancing skills. I have been trained in classical dance. So that kept the music video pretty young and fresh.
More in Malayalam?
I’m looking forward doing more in my mother tongue. It is a little ironic that I have sung more in Hindi, Bengali and even Assamese. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Best show yet
I have two favourites actually. One was in Durban where I performed with my band and we had about 6,000 people in the audience. The other one was in July 2015 at London. I performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.
Alternate profession
If I wasn’t a singer I think I would be a Radio Jockey.
More of Benny this year?
The song Tamil Fever has been picked up for Kapoor and Sons, the latest Karan Johar movie, so there’s going to be a Hindi version of the song.
