By Sugandha Rawal
New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS): Earthquake or floods -- whenever there's a calamity, one musician or another comes up with a song. But world renowned vocalist Raghu Dixit, who once sang for Queen Elizabeth, feels they just try and "cash in" on an opportunity for popularity.
The lead vocalist of popular band The Raghu Dixit Project is clearly not impressed by the idea. His philosophy is to spread out a message by talking about it on stage, instead of preaching about it through his songs.
"I don't know if people really relate to such songs (which highlight some cause) in the long term... people make songs on Nepal earthquake and stuff like that. I find most musicians cashing on the opportunity to become popular by using calamities like that which I'm totally against," Dixit told IANS in an interview here.
"Instead, we should make people forget their worries for that brief period of time in a concert. If I start singing 'Save the world', 'Stop the war' or 'Don't do drugs' - I don't think it is the right way to do it with my songs."
Dixit did his bit for the society along with other members of the multilingual folk band -- Gaurav Vaz, Joe Jacob, Parth Chandiramani and Bryden Lewis - but in sync with his ideology.
The band made the right noise with their performance when they listed some of the key elements in favour of India for The Global Goals campaign via a 'Light The Way' event at Purana Quila here last month.
A scientist-turned-singer, he believes that music has its own universe, and its tunes do their bit in connecting people. He pointed out that infusing some words of wisdom in the music hoopla of a concert, is "more effective" than making songs on a cause.
"I think music should bring only communities together and make them feel that they belong to each other and in that process of euphoria and ecstasy of being in a concert, if a positive message is spoken about like Global Goals, then I think that is far more effective," said Dixit.
He said that overcoming "lack of education and poverty" in India will act as the first step towards a better future.
Making the noble "lungi" a style statement, Dixit has looped towards accomplishment by presenting an amalgamation of Indian ethnic music with a touch of humour, and made a name for himself across the globe.
He performed at the British Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations with his band in 2012, and broke into an impromptu gig with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in the national capital earlier this year.
Dixit is known for rendering music for Kannada films, and is foraying into Tamil films as well.
Having composed music for Sonam Kapoor starrer "Bewakoofiyaan" and other Bollywood films, what's next for Hindi filmdom?
"There are talks, but nothing concrete yet," said the Bengaluru-based Dixit, who has composed music for films like "Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge" and "Quick Gun Murugun".
He knows that since he has not "packed my bags and moved to Mumbai", he's not immersed in Bollywood music. But he's in a happy space.
"I'm happy doing the work I'm doing right now. I have not really moved to Mumbai and said 'I'm available'. I have never held out a card and said I'm a composer -- maybe that's the thing that is stopping me from coming into Bollywood with full force," he said.
But he is eager to work with new filmmakers, who are exploring bolder themes.
"There is a huge space now for all kind of music to come into Bollywood. There is no more same kind of formula films as the new filmmakers are coming with bolder and contemporary themes, which is connecting with the young India and I think that is great.
"That's where my space is."