The fame route

Singer Mohit Chauhan hits the right note with "Masakalli", the chartbuster number from upcoming Delhi-6 that's in the air, everywhere.

The first time that I’d met him, Mohit Chauhan, lead vocalist for Silk Route, a Delhi-based band, had already hit a high note with their fabulous album Dooba Dooba. The music video — shot underwater — looked delightful, and Chauhan’s lilting voice and the song’s haunting melody ensured Silk Route’s easy start in the music industry.

By the time I met him, almost four years after the band’s debut, in a recording studio in Delhi’s South Extension area, sadly, the applause had died down. Moreover, the music industry was riddled increasingly by pop singers who would invest their own money, market their own albums and find companies to distribute them. Then there was piracy which was just beginning to rear its ugly head in the market. Chauhan, along with his band members, had come in for a “jam session” in the recording studio where, within minutes, they created some amazing melodies.

 

I suspect some of those songs even got recorded in a Mumbai sound studio later and were released as part of their second album. But Chauhan hadn’t been all that lucky the second time around. The album was hardly publicised and I know for certain that some of his contemporaries (including a popular Delhi-based band) did mock him, making remarks about how the Silk Route band members were “losers” who hardly got any live shows.

When I’d met him next, Silk Route’s second album had been released. I didn’t even know of it, until I went over to Chauhan’s place (he was living in Delhi’s Patparganj area) one evening and saw his second album’s cassette carelessly lying on one of the living room shelves. “Why don’t you do some publicity?” I’d enquired. Chauhan had laughed, preferring instead to let me hear “Morni”, a haunting Pahadi song that gives me goose-bumps even today.

No video of that song ever came out (talks were on but nothing materialised, I was told later) but even today it remains one of the finest songs to come out of the indi-pop labels. He felt uncomfortable “talking” about his work when it was already there for others to listen to. My arguments fell on deaf ears but all I’d understood of Chauhan was that he genuinely didn’t like indulging in any PR activity for himself or for his band. On the contrary, he told me the story of ‘Morni’ and how it was composed. “I took my guitar and went off to the hills. I was sitting in the shade of a tree and that’s it. That’s how the song came to me,” he had said, excitedly.

I knew it would be hard convincing him to give me an interview after all these years. But much has changed for Chauhan, hasn’t it? Back then when I’d met him, the euphoria of the first album was over and critics were wondering if Chauhan would ever be heard again. “We were doing some live shows even then,” says Chauhan, after postponing our interview for many weeks. “I might have to shift permanently to Mumbai now,” he says sadly, “The hills are closer from Delhi and Nahan (where my parents live) is just some hours away.” He might still be waiting for a chance to run to the hills, but maybe it won’t be possible too soon for him. His hit song, “Masakalli”, from Delhi-6, a track composed by music maestro A R Rahman, is a chartbuster already.

When Business Standard met Rahman for a story in Delhi, he’d called Chauhan “the voice and flavour of the industry. He’s underutilised still but immensely talented,” he had said. On his part, says Chauhan, “I loved working with him [Rahman]. He has a subtle way to guide you. I love the freedom he gives his singers when they’re recording for him. It’s an amazing feeling to have sung some important tracks of my career with him.” He’s already lending his vocals for some of the top-notch directors like Pritam, Sandesh Shandilya and Shantanu Moitra, to name just a few.

But how did he reinvent himself? An Indi-pop singer from New Delhi’s Patparganj area, originally from Nahan, how did he get the much-envied break in playback singing? “I’ve always been a very patient guy. I’ve had faith and genuine interest in my craft,” he says while taking a break from one of his recording sessions. The biggest difference in the industry that’s facilitating singers like him, says Chauhan, is the fact that there’s a variety that music directors crave. “Most of the music directors today were part of bands too,” he explains.

The turning point, says Chauhan, was “Guncha”, a song that he had sung for Main, Meri Patni aur Voh, a critically acclaimed, low-budget film that came out in 2005. Then there was Rang De Basanati’s “Khoon Chala”, a track which he recorded for Rahman. Jab We Met, a sleeper hit by Imtiaz Ali, included “Tumse Hee”, one of the best romantic tracks to come out in recent years in Hindi cinema. Then there was Fashion’s “Kuch Khaas Hai”, “a dark, romantic track” as Chauhan calls it that became a hit on radio channels. And now there’s “Masakalli”, the song which is being heard everywhere, on radio, television, mobile phones and on the Net. Has there been a strategy? After all, he’s sung barely 12 tracks and all of them have been phenomenal hits. “No way, it’s nothing like that. I’ve just been singing along for the past so many years and things just seem to fit in now,” he says, adding that he’s excited about his forthcoming work in Kites, a Hrithik Roshan starrer.

What possibly sets Chauhan apart from the rest of his ilk is that, even today, he’s in no tearing hurry to succeed. It could be a reason why he’s still so unaffected by the accomplishments and the instant recognition that he’s receiving. “I could just run back to the hills. I want to go trek, relax and hum a little. Life in a city, any big city, symbolises the rat race, constant hustle-bustle, but still there’s energy here that I’m absorbing and appreciating gradually,” he says. “Plus, when I’m singing, I lose myself, I enjoy the freedom that the musical notes offer,” he adds. For someone who completed an MSc in geology from Himachal University, strummed a guitar in the hills while lying under the shade of a tree, composed his first jingle for Khazana basmati rice, Chauhan — he’s in the process of recording his first non-film solo album — is a success story.

“Am I really a success story?” he asks me. It’s an answer he’s still finding out. It’s a good sign, I think. Success hasn’t gone to his head, after all.