Daler Mehndi

Trivia

• Blizzard Entertainment used Daler Mehndi's dance in the music video for "Tunak Tunak Tun" as the template for the dance of characters of the Draenei race in World of Warcraft which has further expanded his internet presence, especially in Japan through the popular video hosting service Nico Nico Douga.
• He is a fan of automobiles, owning a Prado because of the protection it gives against the road rage and "poor discipline on the part of the majority of road users" on Delhi's streets, but hopes to purchase a Hummer "like Jackie Shroff" at some point.
• Mehndi has established the Daler Mehndi Green Drive to help make a cleaner environment in Delhi. He has also donated 85 million rupees to the green drive, 12 million rupees to Cargyle charities, and built 16 houses in Gujarat after an earthquake there. He also did a concert series in Pakistan to raise funds for the quake victims. He has also helped rehabilitate victims of the Orissa cyclone and street children in Kenya
• Daler Mehndi specializes in a type of Hindi-Pop that he infuses with Rababi singing, a Sikh musical tradition. The sound is similar to that of Techno, dance, and house music, with the folk sounds of an Indian tabla being played in the background. His popularity and the concurrent revival of Bhangra music is thought to be driven by the ease of dancing to it and a national pride in the Indian people.
• An Indian Islamic group called Raza Academy took Mehndi to court over some of the lyrics and the video of his album Nabi Buba Nabi to be offensive. Several of the words were changed, removing references to "prophet".
• Mehndi was accused of being a member of a scam bringing illegal immigrants to Canada by disguising them as musicians, a charge he denies. He was in hiding for a month before he surrendered to police in Patiala and was charged with 31 counts of immigration law violations. Punjab police director-general, A. A. Siddiqui, later stated Mehndi was innocent and insinuated that the confusion arose because Daler and his brother, who was the original target of the scandal, looked alike.
• He earned Channel V's Best Male Pop Singer Award, which he received in 1996 for Dar Di Rab Rab and in 1997 for Ho Jayegi Bale Bale.
• He received the Award for Voice of Asia International Ethnic and Pop Music Contest in 1994.
• Mehndi eventually switched from classical music to pop, and in 1995 his first album Bolo Ta Ra Ra, with tunes based on those given to him by his mother,[9] sold half a million copies in four months and 20 million copies total, making him the best selling non-soundtrack album in Indian music history.
• Outside of India he has an immense fan base in Afghanistan, and among Afghan Diaspora. It was his relation with Afghans that he sang most of the lyrics in Farsi in his album Bismillah, which was released on Ramadan of 2008.