Maahi: "I didn't understand why my father Shaan's song 'Tanha Dil' was such a rage until..."

Budding singer and the son of the legendary singer, Shaan, Maahi has been gradually making his presence felt on the music space and just like the sons of legendary figures too, trying to rise above his legacy among other things.

Maahi recently had a single, Jaan Se Zyada come out about a month ago and has managed to cross over 5 million views on YouTube. In an exclusive unfiltered conversation with India Forums, we asked Maahi about several things ranging from how he unlearned anything that felt like he is aping his father's style to talking about the current generation, their music preferences and shorter attention span among several other things.

Q. Does musical legacy feel like a gift or a shadow? Or both depending on the day?

I think definitely more gift than shadow. You know, it's come to the point where I have the opportunity to ask dad, brother, bua, mom—anyone—questions about music, where I feel like they definitely have more experience and are always there to help me. Along with that, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing to be able to inherit such an incredible legacy from dad. And being able to carry that forward means a whole lot. And, you know, at the same time, I'm trying to create my own legacy. So I try not to think of it as a shadow, and it's definitely more of a gift for me.

Q. You have Jaan Se Zyada that's out and getting appreciation, what's the toughest thing in today's day and age when it comes to presenting music that reached the maximum people as the attention spans are shorter and the forgetting something aspect is perhaps faster?

So yeah, I think, you know, as every generation passes, it feels like the attention span is getting shorter and shorter. I myself am guilty of that as a Gen Z myself. I feel like, you know, I'm being able to give less time to specific pieces of content that I'm consuming, not making particularly. But for me, you know, I think what's important right now is that I think one other common theme across all Gen Zs is that, you know, we look for genuineness in terms of any work, whether that be a film or music. And that's one thing that we've tried to maintain with all our music is that, you know, it has to be genuine, has to come from the heart. And Jhansi Jata is very much that. I think maybe that's why it's resonating, you know, well with the audience is that I think it's genuine.

I didn't understand why Tanha Dil was such a cult rage until I felt it. I always preferred Bhool Jaa from the album initially

- Maahi (on father Shaan's iconic songs)

Q. A song of your father that you don't like that much even though people love it? And why?

This is also a tricky question. I think dad has had such an incredible discography over the years. One thing I will say is that until very recently, I didn't understand why Tanha Dil was such a cult rage until I felt it. You know, until I saw my friends go abroad. So for a long, long time in my life, I always thought Bhool Jaa—I thought, wow, that's my favorite song from that album of his. But as soon as my friends went off to the US and I was tanha, then I immediately understood that the song is magical. And that's when I fell in love with the song like the rest of the world has.

Q. What's the most bizarre comment or DM you have received after a song's release?

Uh, that's a fun, fun question. I've had a few, few odd DMs from time to time. One fun one, one that I always enjoy is, you know, running somewhere, walking somewhere very fast, make eye contact with someone, get a quick smile and run ahead. I'll get a message on Instagram later, saying, hey, I just smiled at you at, you know, this place and that place. It's always a sweet, sweet comment. Bizarre mein toh, I'm not sure I can really share those, but a few bizarre ones do come, but I'll share a sweet one.