'Bolo TaRa Ra Ra', ‘Balle Balle’, ‘Tunak Tunak’ and ‘Roobaroo’ are few popular songs by Indian pop artiste Daler Mehndi. His experience in genres like Pop, Bhangra, Sufi, Gurbani, Bollywood, and Fusion, has also helped him add new flavours to his music.

‘Tunak Tunak’ was a track that become an internet phenomenon and even grabbed the attention of DJ/producer Deadmau5, adding to his global popularity.

The singer will soon release a new single titled ‘Dilruba’ in a few days, and spoke to Radioandmusic.com about it and more.

Excerpts:

What is your plan for 2015?

This year I will be on a world tour; we are working on it. The tour will start in May-June and will have about 30 shows in UK, Canada, US and most European countries. Then in June-July, I will perform in Australia, Fiji, Singapore, and Kuala Lampur. The name of the tour is ‘Tunak Tunak Tunak man on tour’. The interesting part of my fan following in these countries is that they know my dance steps and perform them when I play at various locations. Local residents from Korea, Brazil and Chile are requesting me to perform in their countries. These three countries are new on my tour list.

In Spain, there were 17,000 people who attended my show and most of them were Spanish-speaking audiences. It was an amazing moment when I was made known that they are big fan of all my songs not just ‘Tunak Tunak Tuna’. All my fans dance to the songs when I perform live, it is very encouraging as a performer.

Tell us more about ‘Dilruba’, will it be followed by an album?

It was created during his visit to a nightclub in Delhi. ‘Dilruba’ will be out soon. It is produced by DRecords and the lyrics and music was done by me.

There will be promotion around the album soon and then I will think of any other album or single.

Comment on the digital era and how has it helped artistes?

People want to listen to music on their portable devices which has helped in reaching out to the masses. I think the digital format and singles are better options. In the past, when we released any album, we had eight to ten songs. Now we can launch a single and make it available in the market. Earlier, we were dependent on the media to create a buzz about our album. But now with everything going digital, we can promote the single or the album on a digital platform. If your work is good then people will find you.

What is happening with your land controversy?

In India, people point fingers at you before the investigation takes place. People scrutinise you first rather than looking into the matter. It has been more than 10 years, but I am happy that my family and I came out of it without any impact. In all this, I believe that it was the face of the media which was shocking because of the way they judged me. Suddenly, RJs, TV channels and the press started mocking me. Before the controversy, I always believed that the media is with artistes as they have one to one conversations with them. But after the controversy, I realised the true face of media. There was a reporter who made a claim (when the case was filed) and now; he has not appeared in court. The only person who heard my voice and allowed me to express my view was Rajat Sharma (through his show).  I am hopeful that the court will soon give a verdict in my favour.

The land controversy affected me for only a while after the media portrayed me as a culprit. But after all this whenever I see any controversial news on TV, I laugh about it as I do not believe claims the media makes.

As a renowned artiste is it a challenge to stay away from controversy?

It is very easy to spread rumours about anyone. I do not pay heed to controversies that come my way. But the people who criticise or bad-mouth me, cannot really be an artiste like me. 

Have you started working on your collaboration with Deadmau5?       

The project with Deadmau5 requires a lot of time together. I feel that we need a video that would require two-three months of planning and execution. 

Are you planning to collaborate with any artistes in the future?

I would be happy to collaborate with artistes who want to collaborate with me. I do not really approach artistes. One artiste I would have loved collaborating with was Michael Jackson.

Which music artistes do you aspire to work with?

I do not have aspirations and dreams. When my name started getting associated with Deadmau5, everyone thought that it was my dream but in reality it happened out of nowhere. We build dreams with our music for our fans and do not dream things for ourselves.

Are there any other film projects that you are working on?

I have given vocals for a folk song in the film Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s 'Mirza Sahiba' which I am sure will be big hit.