Daler Mehendi has been talking to the press since 10 in the morning. It's now 2pm and he's chatting animatedly with a couple of journos. Dressed in his trademark (self designed) green sequined jacket, pagdi, and black trousers, Daler exudes an air of calm confidence.

I imagine a boxing ring… and to the right we have Jaswinder, Sukhwinder, Bhupi, and the rest of the bhangra boys. And to the left of the ring we have Daler Mehendi, the heavy weight champion, and the baap of bhangra.

And he reminds me of Tyson - the fallen God. The question is: can he make a comeback?

Ever since last year's debacle - his album Ek Dana flopped and the song "Nabi Buba Nabi" was embroiled in controversy - Daler has been biding his time deliberately.
"After my album flopped I did nothing for a year; every time I switched on the TV all I saw was thrashy music videos and I wanted to break my TV!"
Daler was also angry at the way his record label treated him; "the record company should have supported me when the controversy broke out. I also think people like Javed Akhtar etc should have come out in support of me."
The funny thing is "Nabi Buba Nabi" came to Daler in a dream, "I was taking a small nap before a live gig in the US when I had a dream. In it I met a few people and they were singing "Nabi Buba Nabi". I asked them what it meant and they said it was a form of praise."

Ironically the song made Daler's life a living nightmare!

But the anger gives way to child like excitement when Daler starts to talk about his new album Nach Ni Shaam Kaure. Daler crosses his legs, sips some Evian mineral water and begins the promotion spiel.

I haven't asked him anything but he knows how it works. He starts with the name of the album.
There were lots of names in the market like billo, kudi, but I wanted to use the female name with respect. As you know in Punjab "Kaur" is used to address the female. That's when I thought of Naach Ni Shaam Kaure.

Wanting to break the fixed pattern in Punjabi music
I was listening to the music in the market and I felt that it was getting very monotonous, the only words one heard were shava, balle, adipaa, tho maine kaha bus bahut ho gaya yeh sab.
So I wanted to incorporate words like ooh, yeah, yes (he starts singing the words) into my songs and if you listen to this album you'll notice that I have used these words.

A global khichdi of sounds…
The composition in this album is Punjabi, the music European and the rhythm (believe it or not) is hip-hop and reggae!

Whilst talking about his comeback video "Paisa Paisa" we learn that the Daler Mehendi phenomena is a formula…
Coming back after a year and a half I wanted the video to be different. We were wondering what color combo to go with, aur Daler Mehendi ki dance ki ek step tho chahiye hi chahiye, tho hum uske baare mein bhi soch rahe the.
(Daler does the dance step, which is an intricate hand movement!)

Tell us about the songs in Nach Ni Shaam Kaure…
There is a song called "Chajju Baniya" which is a very naughty song. Yeh ekdum hot aur heavy gaana hai. But its meaning will be understood only by those above 40, the youngsters will just enjoy the music and be happy!

"Jogi" is a trance like song, it's very intoxicating and will have your head spinning in no time

What do you have to say about your brother Mika?
(laughs) Mika is a very good singer; he's hundreds of miles ahead of the bhangra artists. My only advice to him is, ki tumhe joh karna hai karo, lekin sur pe dhyaan do.

Daler looks down upon video that objectify women, like the one in which girls wear mini skirts which then flare up to reveal white cotton pantys!
I will never show videos like that, and if I have no other choice I will do it in such a manner that it is not disrespectful for women. For instance in my video "Paisa Paisa" I am shown covering one of the girls with a dupatta.

The Daler look is very popular, almost a trademark. There are Daler Dolls which are quite the rage. Would you start a Daler clothing line?
I heard about the dolls, and I was very amused that people were buying dolls that looked like me. It makes me happy. And no, right now I am not going to start a Daler clothing line.

Daler Mehendi's Nach Ni Shaam Kaure is out in stores now. You can catch his video Paisa Paisa on TV channels

By Clyde D