With a seven-hour waiting time at the Doha Airport, Benny Dayal sounds rather flurried but manages to enthusiastically answer every question with a laugh. For someone who's natural on the stage, he is more than happy to be performing in Chennai. “I'm glad The Hindu has considered me to do this concert,” he says.
Ask him about his move from Chennai to Mumbai and Benny wants to know if he should give a serious answer or a funny one but seconds later he says, “The move from Chennai to Mumbai has paid off a lot; it's my second life. I believed in taking this risk and I'm happy I took it -- there have been some great songs that have happened.” And he believes that it's his hard work that has paid off: “It's like Rahman says: your work should speak for itself. Other composers have been interested in what I do and they have always been supportive of my talents.”
Benny, who has come a long way since his first song, says that he doesn't differentiate between film music and independent: “I prefer just music; everything else doesn't matter.”
But it has been a while since he dabbled in singing for Malayalam films and says that he is, in fact, open to taking offers.
Shakthisree Gopalan is one of the recent singers who has caught Benny's eye and he explains that, “she's promising and reminds me of myself when I was younger: exploring both film and independent music at the same time. Every genre she experiments in, she is extremely convincing, be it jazz, soul or soft rock. She is an amazing friend and like a sister to me.” And this is why, Benny says, he chose to perform with her.
Benny has also been working with Indian-American musician Karsh Kale on an album and an English track with the California-based singer Sanjoy Deb. While you look for these tracks, expect a melange of Benny's hits from both Tamil and Hindi film music at the concert.
