Singer Daler Mehndi’s powerful voice can lift any song you give him. And while he doesn’t mind taking up any genre or language after 25 years of being in the industry, there is one condition he still lays down before agreeing to lend his voice to a track.

“Main koshish karta hoon jo hamari young generation ke upar ganda asar daale, woh gaana na karun. I have my own style, people call me for that,” he says, adding, “The secret of my energy is that I don’t do substance abuse of any kind, it is all pure and not artificial. I don’t drink, not even cold drinks,” says the 54-year-old who recently had his latest song, Garda Udaa Diya, release from the film Atrangi Re.

It brought him back together with music maestro A R Rahman after they last delivered the hit title track of Rang De Basanti (2006). “We have done a dhamaka again. I got a call from Rahman sahab when the film was being made. He had told them ‘Mere mind mein sirf ek aadmi hai.’ Then we spoke on video call, and I flew to Chennai to record it. The song has been breaking records ever since it released,” claims Mehndi.

He has seen a lot change in the industry since he started off. The latest ‘in’ thing is the focus on maximum number of views online. He confesses he is not too bothered about it. “Maine kabhi bhi number pe dhyaan nahin diya. It feels happy to see how many people respond though. It feels nice that we are giving pure music to our listeners and not just remixing,” Mehndi concludes.