Raftaar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Raftaar

• Raftaar is an Indian rapper, lyricist, dancer, TV personality, and music composer who is popular for working on various Hindi and Punjabi music. Some of his famous songs include Swag Mera Desi, Baby Marvake Maanegi, and Saare Karo Dab.

• When he was in school, he was bullied by his classmates due to which he changed schools six times.

  

• After completing his studies, he started taking classes at a dance institute in Delhi, where he earned Rs 150 per kid.

• He participated in the show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 8 in 2015 on Colors as a contestant.

  

• In an interview, he revealed that he is a Malayali hailing from Kerala, he learned Punjabi, Haryanvi, and Hindi while growing up in a hostel in Haryana.

• He changed his name from Dilin to Raftaar because he used to rap in Punjabi, but his name was Malayali. In an interview, he revealed how his Malayali name was revealed to his fans and said,
  

  After Malaika Arora Khan revealed that I am a Malayali on India’s Got Talent, my Facebook and Twitter pages were filled with queries. In fact, some even thought I have signed on some Malayalam movie and was promoting it.”

• He began his career in 2008 when he used to record songs with Lil Golu and Young Amli (now known as Ikka) and upload them on social media.

• During the initial days of his career, he joined the Mafia Mundeer group and started working with Honey Singh.

• In 2012, Raftaar split from the group because he was not given credit for some songs. After he left the group, he was managed by Ankit Khanna who introduced Raftaar to the Punjabi music band RDB. Later, he signed up with the label, Three Records. The RDB group also split after which he joined Manjeet Ral (now known as Manj Musik).

• Raftaar gained popularity for the song “Swag Mera Desi” in 2013. In the song, there is a line ‘Ab yeh karke dikhao’ which was a diss to Honey Singh. This led to problems between both of them.

• In 2016, he started his solo career after getting signed to Zee Music Company.

• In 2017, Raftaar debuted in the Bengali music industry. He sang the title track for the Bengali film ‘One’ with singer Vishal Dadlani. He also produced and rapped the song ‘Dekho Dekho Chaamp‘ for the Bengali film Chaamp (2017).

  

• In 2018, he collaborated with Varun Dhawan for the second edition of Breezer Vivid Shuffle.

  

• In 2018, he sang songs Baby Marvake Maanegi, Saare Karo Dab, Gall Goriye, Lonely, and Woh Chori for the album ‘Zero to Infinity.’

  

• Various singles under his belt include Sniper (2014), Desi Hip Hop (2015), Baby Marvake Maanegi (2017), Ghana Kasoota (2021), and Kaali Car (2022).

  

• He wrote songs for various films including Warna Gabbar Aa Jayega for Gabbar is Back (2015), Toh Dishoom for Dishoom (2016), Dum Maro Dum Maro for The Final Exit (2017), Andhadhun Title Track for Andhadhun (2018), and Title Track for Janhit Mein Jaari (2022).

• He recorded two EPs BAR’ISH EP in 2020 and HARD DRIVE Vol. 1 in 2022. The albums included various songs including Microphone Check, Tu Phir Se Aana, Goat Dekho, GANGNUM and RAASHAH.

• In 2020, he released another album ‘Mr. Nair’ in which he sang songs including Main Wahi Hoon, Drama, Bottal Wargi, Naachne Ka Shaunq and Superman.

• He appeared as a gang leader for the show Roadies Xtreme (2018), Roadies: Real Heroes (2019), and Roadies: Revolution (2020) on MTV.

  

• He appeared as a judge on the shows Dance India Dance Battle Of The Champions (2019) on ZEE 5 and MTV Hustle (2020).

• In 2019, he appeared as a host on the show ‘Swag On with Raftaar’ on JioCinema where he discussed political and social issues with celebrities.

• He is also the co-founder of the music label Kalamkaar.

• He got divorced from Komal Vohra, who is the sister of Indian television actors Karan Vohra and Kunal Vohra, in June 2022, but, but the legal proceedings did not take place at that time due to the COVID pandemic.

• He is often spotted enjoying alcohol on various occasions.

  

Raftaar as a judge on the show ‘MTV Hustle’