”Honey Singh is not a competition because you don’t compete with established people,” says artiste Raftaar, who calls himself a “poet with a swag”.

An entertainer who alternates between posting his own aphorisms and Plato or Dalai Lama’s quotes on social media, Raftaar (above) calmly clarifies his equation with Yo Yo Honey Singh. “Honey Singh is not a competition because you don’t compete with established people,” he says, adding as an afterthought, “It is the new breed that you have to worry about.”

Does he mean Badshah (above right) then, we ask, to which he immediately quips, “Badshah is my brother. We are not competing with each other. We believe in collaborations.”

Raftaar reveals he will collaborate with Badshah for one song in each other’s album. And their fans have already coined a term, ‘Raashah’ to address the duo. Raftaar and Badshah have worked together on a multi-artiste song ‘Desi hip hop’. However, the wait is for a track, featuring just the two, exclusively.

Born Dilin Nair, Raftaar identifies himself as “a poet with a swag” and begs to be addressed as “an artiste”. He also says that because he delves into many kinds of art (art, music, dance, production, poetry and songwriting), but focusses on few (singing and painting), he calls himself “a Jack of all trades and master of some”.

He has recorded for his latest song Dhaakad, in two other languages, Tamil and Telugu. “The version that’s already out is a mix of Hindi and Haryanvi. Actually, 90% Hindi and 10% Haryanvi because otherwise people wouldn’t understand. I have been told it would take some time for the other versions to be out,” he says.