Bollywood songs rule the heart of most Indian music lovers! A case in point was when singer Benny Dayal was bombarded with requests to belt out his desi numbers over English tunes at the opening day of the 10th edition of Kingfisher Premium - The Great Indian Octoberfest (TGIOF) here.
But Benny, who found the requests strange, had to satiate the requests of the audience -- and it was a sight to behold!
The singer was at the fest to perform with his band FunktuaTion, at the inaugral day of the three-day festival Friday at E-Zone club here.
The event started with an "average turnout of crowd" because of the venue, which is a little away from the main city compared to last season when it happened at a central spot, but it gradually picked up when Benny came to perform live in front of the city's music aficionados.
However, what surprised the singer was when one of the audience members, requested him to start with Bollywood tracks.
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Pat said Benny: "You are standing at a music festival, not at a Bollywood concert."
Also, given that most of Bangalore's young crowd is abreast with western music, including electronica, funk, rock and hip-hop, a request for Bollywood track was unexpected.
But Benny, who is considered a perfect livewire at open-air gigs as well as inside a compact studio, was courteous enough not to disappoint the Bollywood music fanatics.
After performing some of his thundering English tracks, he started playing one of his recent hit title tracks from Hrithik Roshan-starrer film "Bang Bang". That truly set the momentum going.
The crowd went into a frenzy with the foot-tapping number and started screaming with excitement with beer cans in their hand.
The performance went ahead with another of his Bollywood number -- the chartbuster "Badtameez dil" from the hit Bollywood movie "Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani". He also later sang some soulful tracks, including "Dil se re" from Shah Rukh Khan's "Dil Se..." and "Albela sajan aayo re" from the film "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam".
The experience was as memorable for Benny as much as for the crowd.
"It is great to perform in such festivals and nothing can beat the adrenaline rush that comes with these acts. The audience of Bangalore never disappoints me," the singer said after the performance.
The crowd had a lot of say after his performance got over.
"He is too good and we want more from him. We love all his tracks and I think he is someone who can make anyone laugh and cry at the same time with his soulful voice whenever he performs," said a young fan, who came all the way from Hyderabad to be part of ongoing music gala.
The other bands and singers who performed on the opening day were Mad Orange Fireworks, Grey Shack, Peepal Tree, Ministry of Blues and not to forget the Apache Indian, who is known for his distinctive style of fusing Asian, West Indian and English cultural elements together in his music and performances.
