MUMBAI: A few stories take us by surprise and one such story is of Devu Khan. The little wonder who sang 'Dum-A-Dum Mast Qalandar' for the movie 'Dhanak' had actually frozen minutes before recording his super-hit number for Nagesh Kukunoor's film.

The song has become quite a rage with music-lovers, and that’s why it’s hard to believe that Devu developed cold feet minutes before his first encounter with a studio mike.

Talking about it music-composer Tapas Relia says, "Yes, Devu just froze in front of the mike when we started recording the song. But his nervousness was understandable as it was the first time that he was in a recording studio surrounded with all the high-end equipment. We all understood that given the background he comes from, all this would seem very new and different to him. We did have a back-up singer, but we were very confident of his potential and so we decided to give Devu some time and some more tries."

As for how the makers finally got him to sing the famous track with such perfection, Tapas shares that it was only a matter of minutes once he felt comfortable. “We asked Devu to sit and sing and totally forget that he was in front of a mike. Also we had his family there to cheer him. All that worked and once he started singing, we had recorded the number in less than an hour.”

Furthermore, the music-composer also reveals that he insisted on Devu not learning any of the English words that he sings in the song. “I just asked him to repeat whatever words he could gather from the English part of the song. So the broken words that he sings are actually very natural and that worked perfectly for the film,” adds Tapas.

Interestingly, the young singer also happens to be the nephew of the reality show contestant and the Rajasthani folk singer Swaroop Khan.