Kailash Kher says no to Hollywood

New Delhi: He made his Hollywood debut singing an AR Rahman composition in `Couple`s Retreat` and his sufiana renderings had the audience dancing at the Santa Monica Pier and Hollywood Bowl. But Kailash Kher says that he has no ambition to make it in the West.

The singer who is back from his successful US tour, said that though the Western audiences love the new sound of Indian artistes, his style does not fit the Hollywood mould. "Performing at the `Twilight Dance Series` at the Santa Monica Pier was a great experience because at events like that you reach out to a totally different audience and the people went crazy when I sang `Bum Lehri`. The concerts went so well that I received offers to sing in the films too," Kher told reporters. But the 35-year-old singer politely declined. "If I am doing a Hollywood project, it has to be worthy of my time and not the clichéd idea of Indian music. The offers I got were all for the same kind of stuff," said Kher who was in the city for the launch of `French Style Apartments`. The frontman of the folk-pop group `Kailasa` who took Bollywood by storm with the song `Allah Ke Bande` from `Waisa Bhi Hota Hai` in 2003 said that he has bigger and better plans than Hollywood. "I have composed and sung a song for the upcoming film `Allah Ke Bande` and am working on my third album, which is my priority right now. My Indian fans are most important to me. There are a number of concerts including the Qutub festival during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi," said Kher. The singer began training in classical music at the age of 8 but it was the traditional folk songs sung by his father that exerted the most influence on him and his style. In 2001, after a series of unsuccessful forays in various business ventures, Kher left Delhi for Mumbai to pursue his musical dreams. Homeless and living on a train station platform in Mumbai, Kher`s first recording was an advertising jingle. He has come a long way since then. Besides Bollywood hits like `Ya Rabba` and `Tu Jaane Naa`, his collaborations with Naresh and Paresh Kamath created three successful albums `Kailasa`, `Jhoomo Re` and `Chaandan Mein`. But one of the biggest achievements in Kher`s life came seven months ago, when he welcomed son Kabir with wife Sheetal. "Kabir comes before all now. The one thing I don`t like about touring is that I have to leave my family behind, because he is too young to be travelling very long distances," said Kher. PTI