A 30-years-old artist from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, Dildar Khan has been learning music through Braj Lok sangeet and his family’s musical lineage. At a young age, he began to learn music taking inspiration from his father and grandfather. He has been working hard towards achieving mastery in his craft and pursues it with tremendous passion. He considers his father, Tara Khan as his first guru who taught him the basics. He also wished to take lessons from Shree Prakash Nagar, but, due to his financial conditions, couldn’t pursue the same. He speaks very highly of their teachings and achievements in the field of music. He also admires Master Salim from Punjab and considers him as his role model and biggest inspiration. He also believes that music is a gift from his family lineage but somehow feels that they lack the true knowledge of music because of their weak financial status. It is also one of the main reasons he thinks that nobody in his family could make it big. When he was a child, he would try to imitate his father and so picked up the will to sing. Thankfully, he is blessed with a good voice, and so he never stopped learning, he adds. He also knows how to sing classical songs, bhajans, ghazals, light, and Bollywood songs apart from doing traditional Braj Lok Sangeet and has performed in various locations within the state and the entire stretch of our country. He has received many titles 1st prize in Mathura music festival and participated in many Television reality shows like Indian Idol and Rising Star, where, he performed to be around 3 in both the competitions. He has performed across the nation and has pulled off brilliant performances at various state and national level festivals to mesmerize the crowds. When asked, he regards his performance in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata as the most memorable experiences that he has had. He lives in a Joint family of 11 people with his father, mother, three brothers, four sisters, wife, and son. Thus, he couldn’t finish his studies and circumstantially, had to pursue music as a full-time profession to make ends meet. He also got an opportunity for a scholarship from Bharti Kala Kendra, but due to his father’s poor health, he had to leave it midway. Despite all his struggles, he strives to keep developing his craft and dreams to be a known face in the entire nation and aspires someday, in the future, to see himself succeed through the art that he loves so much.
- Braj
- Uttar Pradesh