As music lovers around the globe swooned to his beats, Magnasound revised its contract with Mehndi and signed an awesome Rs 20.5 million two-record deal, thus making the Badshah of Bhangrapop's vocal chords the most prized in the Indian music industry till date. In addition, with the very first album under the new contract, Tunak Tunak Tun, going double platinum within a week of its release, Magnasound could not have got a better deal. Overnight, the magic of the album spread like wildfire taking the country and critics by surprise and the cash registers ringing.
Released worldwide at the same time, the technical finesse of the title video where instead of regular props, four Mehndis performed, was to be seen to be believed. Not someone to rest with his laurels, with Tunak Tunak Tun, however, Mehndi became a little bit chirpier with a catchy melodic pop collection, all funked up with some subtle scratching on the turntables. It was miles ahead of his earlier multi-platinum selling albums. Mixing the earthy goodness of bhangra with a dash of rap and reggae, people loved every bit of it, and with appearances in films further expanding his enormous popularity, he began playing sell-out concerts across the globe. While 1997, saw him perform 15 back-to-back live shows in the US and Canada alone, next year his kitty went up to 20, while 1999 had the charismatic performer tour as many as 30 cities in the US, Canada and the UK. In fact, 1998 was also the year when his popularity peaked to a new high with Coke signing him for an overwhelming, two-month-long, 30-city tour. Something totally unheard of in the history of the cola giant, it was the first time ever that Coke had signed a pop performer to further its cause celebre for as much as Rs 10 million and of course, 30 shows all over the country!
With a new system of 30 tours devised only for Mehndi, this was a first for Coke, too, and each show had more audiences than the previous one creating a mass hysteria of sorts. Diana King, the R&B diva, was so anxious to meet the Boss of Indipop that she waited in Goa to witness the Mehndi mania herself! Even the commercial Ho Ho Re that Mehndi composed for the multinational became an anthem for the young! The same was then translated in Tamil and aired across Thailand, Malaysia, Atlanta and all over India.
But his consummate success is just a pale reflection of his multi-faceted persona, merely one of the many faces of this brilliant diamond…