Mohit Chauhan

It was 2006. The audio of the Rang De Basanti (RDB) movie had released when I was in Silchar. After six months when I went to Delhi, the movie had released and it was a huge hit and so the songs. I used to be very active in the A R Rahman Yahoo Fan club then. All members of the group used to rave about the songs of RDB and the hot and most favorite topic of discussion used to be Naresh Iyer. Naresh Iyer had a fairy tale story to tell. He was picked up by ARR from a channel V reality show and he had sung three songs in the movie and all were hits. So, people would not just stop gushing about him. I also liked his trained and very romantic voice.

But somehow the mostly unnoticed ‘Khun Chala’ was my more favorite in the album. It was by Mohit Chauhan. But no one seemed to notice the beauty and passion of his singing. I remember I had sent two mails in the group pointing out Mohit Chauhan’s brilliance and also saying that ‘I think Mohit will go long way’, and I had not received a single response to that!

There was something that I had found very unique about Mohit’s singing, which most singers lack now a days and that is his control over breathing. He had a little untrained flat voice then but his tremendous control over breathing in and out while singing was something shocked me.

Though Mohit Chauhan didn’t receive any immediate fame with RDB, but his next song was a huge hit - Tum Se Hi in Jab We Met. And then started his long success story.

Now the more I hear Mohit Chauhan singing one after another hit song, I become pleasantly surprised at my own judgment.

PS: Khun Chala from RDB was not the first song by Mohit. He used to be member of the group Silk Routes and Dooba Dooba Rehta Hoon was the first and also first hit song by him. I remember I had instantly recognized him to be Dooba Dooba singer when I heard Khun Chala and I had a tough time making people believe that.