BAMBA BAKIYA

I started singing when I was an eight-year-old child named Bhakiyaraj. It was only thirty years later that I was recognized as a man named Bamba Bakiya.

I grew up in a joint family to a father who loved music but could not pursue it. He spent a lot of energy pushing my musical journey, enrolling me in singing classes and always making sure I had a guru. I was eight when I sang in a competition for the first time and won two tumblers as a prize. From that moment, all I wanted to do was win more tumblers! As I grew older, my father could not support our education and so I funded my siblings and myself through stage performances and choirs.
In 1998, I started singing in an orchestra and continued it till 2010. I used to get paid between Rs. 100 and Rs. 250. On a lucky day, it might be Rs. 500. In 1998, I was the second runners-up in a televised reality show. People started recognizing me on the streets. I knocked on every door and waited for hours but I never got a break. In 2004, things turned around when I fell sick. I went to visit a Sufi saint named
Hasan Kadri who was believed to cure you and in the process, I started serving him. One day, after I told him I sing, he asked me for one of my cassettes to pass on to AR Rahman and introduced me to his mother. Rahman listened to it and sent a message that the singer needs to practice harder. Meanwhile, I started being with the family, doing odd jobs while I continued to sing in the orchestra. After the death of our guru Hasan Kadri, Rahman’s mother has been my guiding light. I call her Amma. In 2009, AR Rahman heard me sing at his driver’s son’s wedding and asked me to sing in his studio. That is how I got my first break. I sang one song along with two other singers for the movie Raavan post which, I went on to sing chorus for music directors like Illayaraja and Yuvan Shankar Raja but I never got an opportunity as a playback singer. I continued to sing in the orchestra and dargah too. There were times that I got upset but I did not lose hope, I kept practicing and rehearsing. In 2018, I asked AR Rahman to give me a chance. I sang in front of him. Three days later, I sang for Rajnikanth’s movie 2.0. He was surprised that I could sing like that. When they were putting the credits together, he texted one word to the sound
engineer. Bamba. That is how I was reborn. From Bhakiyaraj, I became Bamba Bakiya.
It is after 2.0 that my life changed. AR Rahman has been a guiding light. He gave me my break, my name, and my identity. For my first stage performance, he gave me my look which has become a part of me. He believes in giving break to newcomers. Its people like him who remind us not to give up because if you are talented, success may be just round the corner.