‘I got recognition with no sob story, no background’

Darshan Raval started his journey with a singing reality show in 2014, and he fully credits it for getting him noticed. Ask the singer, who has come a long way since then, his take on such shows being called all about sob stories and drama, and he says his show was pretty normal that way. “There was nothing of this sort, it was very musical. I got a lot of recognition through it, with no sob story, no background. People saw me as a singer and supported me,” says the 26year-old, who has sung chartbusters such as Chogada (Loveyatri; 2018) and Mehrama (Love Aaj Kal; 2019).

But amid so much competition, getting noticed by music composers and being picked for songs isn’t the case with every contestant. Hence, most of them disappear from the public eye when the shows ends. Raval asserts it’s all about hard work and persistence. “Even if you sing in a Bollywood film, but there’s no constant hard work after that to make music and entertain people, of course they’ll forget you. An artiste has to keep making what he’s good at, people would also want to connect with him,” he explains. He insists that reality shows are a great platform for people whose talents would otherwise remain untapped. And he is a prime example of this.

Currently, he’s basking in the success of his latest monsoon song, Jannat Ve. Talking about how the track came about, Raval shares the melody for it was composed last year during the pandemic. “And this year, the music came together. It’s written by Nirmaan. This is my seventh year of making monsoon songs,” he says, acknowledging the continued love and support from fans.