Kailash
Kher still gets unnerved every time he passes Mumbai's Andheri railway station.
"I lived here on the platform and one chaiwallah (tea-stall owner) in particular
was a good friend of mine," he says.
As
Kher's sleek, black Honda City zooms out of the posh Lokhandwala area in Andheri,
where he now resides, he says a silent prayer while crossing the station that
was once his home. As a boy, Kher
ran away from Meerut, his birth place, to Delhi in search of a guru. He learned
music from nearly 15 different teachers before his frustration took him to Mumbai.
"This was nearly 10-12 years ago, and I was turned out by almost everyone,"
says the singer. Back in New Delhi,
where his parents also shifted, Kher was asked to join a family friend's sari
export business. "That didn't work out, and for, nearly two years, I was
a frustrated man staring at my parents' blank faces. They had lost all hope,"
Kher recalls.
That was when he decided to take one final plunge in Mumbai's
tinseltown. "I still wonder what I would have done if things had failed this
time too," he says. "I
had a few friends, some of whom were also involved in some way or the other in
a few films. My name was recommended to musician Ram Sampat, who was at that time
looking for a different voice for a jingle for Nakshatra diamonds."
The
jingle may not have given Kher instant recognition but fetched him Rs 5,000, which
he needed desperately at that time "just to survive."
Life didn't
change dramatically even after a few more jingles. But, "at least I was moving
in the right circles and visiting studios I couldn't have dreamt of stepping into,
without any reference or an industry godfather." Disappointment
no. -1 The sensational
singer of Allah ke bande from Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II -- the film was eventually
declared a dud at the box-office -- originally thought his big break would come
from Shah Rukh Khan's big production banner Dreamz Unlimited for the film Chalte
Chalte. Disappointment no. -2 "I
thought I had arrived in the industry when the song Tujh par gagan se was offered
to me by music director Aadesh Srivastava. But I was in for a rude shock when
I finally got the cassette and heard the same song in Sukhwinder Singh's voice."
Kher
admits it was a setback, especially because he was still a struggler and had pinned
his hopes on that song.
"To be completely honest, I had forgotten about
Allah ke bande because it was a small-budget film and I wasn't even sure of its
release."
Success
can come from anywhere Thankfully,
for both Kher and the country, Allah ke bande wasn't chopped from the film,
and remained at the number one position for almost six months across different
channels. That was nearly two years
ago and it was, according to Kher, the turning point of his career. "It was
a miracle that a song from a small film -- that didn't even get good publicity
initially -- was so well received," he says.
"The song was simple,
raw, sung without any pretensions and I didn't imitate anyone and just sang it
in my own style." Initially,
Kher got a lot of flak for his singing style. He admits he used to be nervous
about it. "My voice was considered raw and not the conventional 'hero kind
of voice,' because of which I got turned away from a lot of places," he says.
His critics, who once called his voice flawed and untrained, especially as
it broke at high pitch, have had to chew on their own words as music directors
are now creating songs especially for Kher in films. Nothing
succeeds like success 
Ismail
Darbar, the music director of films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas and Kisna,
says, "Kailash sings with complete sincerity and dedication. Music for him
is devotion, and that aspect reflects in his singing." While
A R Rahman calls him a 'fragrance of rural Indian soil,' Aamir Khan hugged him
and told him, 'Your voice alone is music for the ears.' Now,
Kher's personal life is a daily grind of recording sessions, rehearsals with music
directors, live shows and innumerable interviews, besides looking after a bank
balance that continues to swell -- he charges Rs 50,000 per track -- and an appointment
schedule that he maintains in his sleek Nokia 9500. The
in-demand singer is gearing up for a tour to the US with Jatin-Lalit, after which
he will be away for three months on a world tour with Rahman in 22 countries.
That apart, he's patiently waiting for his forthcoming releases like the Aamir
Khan starrer The Rising, in which Kher even makes an appearance. There
is also Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar, Suneel Darshan's film Apaharan, Khalid Mohamed's
Silsilay, Tanuja Chandra's film on the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Runaway, and another
flick titled Chocolate. Kher
says he is a busy man with no time for a love life. Nevertheless, the hunt is
on for "a simple, sweet girl." He wants to tie the knot by early next
year.
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