MUMBAI: Every musician has a story to tell, some are interesting, while some can just be passed. But, the tale that we are about to narrate today is an interesting one. It’s the real-life story of Mysore Se Aai singer Raghu Dixit frontman of ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’.

Not many know but Raghu was a Bharatnatiyam (an Indian dance form) dancer, trained in the dance form for 18 years till a collegemate challenged him. Soon after a dance performance, a collegemate challenged Raghu to be a man and lift the guitar. Raghu accepted the challenge and decided to learn the instrument in two months.

“Coming from a Tamilian family, during those days playing the guitar only came into Christianity. So I listed down all my Christian friends who would help me find a teacher who would teach me for free and not tell my parents about it but it was too difficult,” said the Shugal Laga Le singer.

“The search landed me to a Christian ceremony where I met two Christian brothers. They said you learn these four cords and you can play any song under the sky and I was so happy. For the next two weeks I learned the four cords and a gospel song which I performed in front of that guy and won the challenge,” added Raghu.

The challenge was met, but what was left behind was love for the art. A feeling to hold it close. “When I first sang on the tunes of guitar, I felt a liberation that I had not felt growing up in a strict family. Suddenly holding a guitar and letting my voice out was a kind of vibration. I still feel it and this is the way of happiness for me. The day I stop feeling the joy is the day I stop doing music,” said Raghu.

Raghu was a microbiologist before he quit his job when someone told him he sings well. One day he decided to opt for music. He has also worked as a technical writer in a software company where he knew nothing about his profile but he continued because that gave him a good amount of free time in the evenings to meet different musicians and learn a few more guitar chords. Meeting people and building contacts helped Raghu form his band.

After creating a few songs, Raghu started approaching music labels. But, unfortunately, none of them were ready to accept this kind of music as that wasn’t the trend back then. Luckily he managed to convince one of the music labels which apparently did not accept him because according to them: “I was too ugly to be signed for a record label,” said Raghu.

“I started writing more songs and discovered the joy in my own language. Gradually, I started taking interest in poetries written 100 of years ago. We started putting those poetries into songs for the audience of today,” ended Raghu.

A new song from the movie Chef released today is sung and written by Raghu Dixit.

Check the song below: