Tochi Raina

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tochi Raina

• Does Tochi Raina smoke: Not Known

• Does Tochi Raina drink alcohol: Not Known

• Raina belongs to a music oriented family. His father, despite being an army personnel, used to play harmonium, his grandmother was a Sitar player and uncle, a renowned Violin player. His brother is a composer in Malaysia and his sister has done Ph.D. as a vocalist, but no one from his family took music as their career for the fear of failure.

• He failed his high school exams, and with just rupees 100 in custody, he fled to Patiala from Nepalgunj.

• He worked as a salesman at the Patiala Sports Club for about 6 months and left the job after getting bored. Raina, because of his interest in cooking, started at a restaurant in the city.

• With love for music in his heart, Raina, in 1987, moved from Patiala to Delhi to learn and understand music. He had no intention of becoming a singer at that moment.

• In order to learn from Ustad Bhure Khan, Raina fled to Mumbai in 1993 but soon returned to his hometown Patiala.

• Raina got linked to the band ” Band of Bandagi”  in 1991.

• In 2003, ‘Raina’ became ‘Raina from Trilochan Singh’, right after landing in Mumbai and began meeting the celebrities. For the first 20 days, he slept on Aksa Beach. It took him nearly 5 years to understand the industry.

• Raina got his first breakthrough in the Bollywood with Bulleshah in Neeraj Pandey’s film A Wednesday in 2008.

• It was in May 2009 when a simple error in the name resulted in him being admitted to Bombay Hospital where he underwent psychiatric treatment. 28 years of patience and complete dedication brought fame to him, but it did not last long because of a blunder by a website, and that was the mistaken identity. Credits for the song ‘Pardesi’ were given to Toshi Sabri instead of Tochi Raina. The website was later sent a notice with a demand of INR 2 Crore as the compensation for the losses that Tochi suffered during those days.

• Raina considers music reality shows on TV of no use. He says that kids who participate develop a wrong attitude because of the exposure on Television. Adding to the point, he said, “many singers have come into the industry through this way, but the only thing we question about them is, ‘Where are they today’?”