After eating chanas with Madhuri Dixit in Madhuri Dixit mile raste mein, declaring that he can have his way in Meri marzi... and urging people to forget about the world and enjoy life in Aish tu kar, rapster Devang Patel now says that he is the busiest man around in his song Time nahin... from his latest album No Time...

Devang Patel made an impact the very first time when he sang Madhuri Dixit mili raste mein... khaye chane hum ne saste mein. And that too at a time when there was no music video to boost the song. Besides the bold and outrageous lyrics, which many would describe as nonsense verse, it was the straight and unpretentious singing style that clicked with the masses, making Devang a popular name overnight.

“My sole aim is to provide entertainment at whatever cost, which is why you’ll find my lyrics light and frivolous. Even in my videos I like to look funny,” says Devang, who in real-life, looks like a Gujju boy next-door and least the comic figure he cuts in his videos.

Well, adopting a comic image was a marketing strategy, informs Devang. “The music market is flooded with albums on themes of pyar, and everybody is into pop these days. I wanted to be different and went in for the comic image because comedy is what comes to me naturally,” the rapster explains, “Now people expect me to be funny whenever I come out with an album. And I don’t want to change it. They might just be shocked if I decided to do some serious stuff.”

Devang’s latest album No Time is another addition to his list of funny albums and like past albums, this one too has been released in Hindi and Gujarati. Talking about it, he says, “No Time are the oft-used words by the city people since they lead a busy life. The title song Mere paas time nahin is about a man who is a show-off. He says that he can do the most impossible things, if only he had time.” The video for the title song has been innovatively direected by ace glamour photographer Jagdish Maali. “He has done a wonderful job and the video is just apt for the song,” says Devang happily.

Like his past albums, which were a success, Devang is confident that No Time will be another feather in his cap. “The album has been released recently by Bombino Music and it’s getting a good response, both in Hindi and Gujarati,” claims the rapster. “And my themes are such that they can never go wrong,” he declares.

According to Devang, deciding on a theme for an album comes easy to him. “My mind is always teeming with ideas and I choose a theme which is topical and a part of our daily life,” he says, “When I write the lyrics, I have visuals in my mind. That helps because listeners identify with your thoughts in the song. Another thing I keep in mind is that the tune should be easy to sing. And my kind of songs work purely on the basis of lyrics. So lyrics are important and if they evoke a laugh from my friends, then I know I have a hit on my hands.”

To make his songs popular, Devang doesn’t think twice about plagiarising popular tunes. “As I said, mine are lyric-based albums, so I don’t mind lifting popular tunes if they help in making my lyrics popular,” he admits unhesitatingly and even cites examples, “See, my Meri marzi was based on It’s my life, while Madhuri Dixit mili raste mein had the Chok there tune. And my latest hit, the song Tu apna kaam kar re from the film Mard, is inspired by the English song Adoma. Contrary to the belief that it has been composed by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, I want to state that it has been composed, written and sung by me, though the credits don’t say it.”

But one thought that Tu apna kaam kar re was a take-off on Shiamak Davar’s Mohabbat kar le re. “Not at all. Even he has lifted it from the English song. I had thought of Tu apna kaam kar re two years back, much before Shiamak Davar’s album got released,” he clarifies.

Name and fame has come the hard way for this Ahmedabad youngster. It was Devang’s childhood dream to make it as a singer and he worked single-mindedly towards it. “I would always come out a winner in the talent contests in school and college,” he says, “After I graduated in B.Com. I told my family about my ambition, but they were totally against it. So I fought with them and came to Mumbai with dreams in my eyes.”

In Mumbai, Devang decided that he would sing in shows by the local music groups. But no group was willing to give him a chance. “I was almost on the verge of giving up, had it not been for Hassan Jehangir.” Smiling at the quizzical look on our face, he elaborates, “You see at that time the Pakistani singer’s album Hawa Hawa had become a rage and he proved to be a source of inspiration for me. I realised that the way to popularity was through an album. So with the little resources that I had, I recorded my first song, Madhuri Dixit mile raste mein, in the original Gujarati version in Ahmeadabad, with the help from my friends and released it locally with great difficulty. And you won’t believe it, the song became an instant hit, and I became a hero in my native place,” he beams.

But Devang was not satisfied just being a local hero. He wanted the nation to hear him. So with the idea of recording the song in Hindi, he came back to Mumbai and started doing the rounds of music companies here. And it was at the office of Time Audio that he got a rousing reception. “Hasmukh Shah, the owner of Time Audio, himself came to welcome me. He said that he had heard my Gujarati song in Mt. Abu, and had been looking out for me. He gave me the go-ahead to record the song in Hindi, which was heard by Govinda, who insisted on having it in Gambler. The Hindi version too became a craze and my career was made,” Devang says unbelievingly. Gambler also had another hit song of his, Meri marzi. “Now my family says that they always knew I would make it big as a singer,” he smiles

Spurred by the overwhelming response, Devang cut more albums Traffic Jam, Aish Kar, which was released by ABCL, Bak Bak, which had the hit song Mujhe kya and now No Time. “Of the first three, Aish Kar, and its Gujarati version, Jalsa, have sold the most,” reveals Devang, “And the Gujarati verions do more business compared to the Hindi ones.”

Devang has his own team, who help him with his work. Besides himself, Vinay Dave and Rajendra Patel write the lyrics, and Preeti and Pinky, sing with him. And they are the busiest during the dandiya season. “In Gujarat, my group is the most sought-after for dandiya nights. I end up singing alone the whole night for 10 days,” he boasts.

The rapster has now hit a new high in his life. He is all set to compose music for a feature film, Babubhai Latiwala’s I Love My India. “It’s another of my dream-come-true, and I think I was fortunate to come across a person like Babubhai, who knows music. My talent will come to the fore with this film. It will have different types of songs, but typical of my style,” he says.

Now that he is into composing music for films, will that mean the end of his albums? “I will continue making albums, funny albums, forever,” he assures, “Because comedy is my life. And comedy never ends. From Charlie Chaplin to David Dhawan, it will always remain alive.”