Far From The Madding Crowd

He’s piqued our collective interest with outings in Margarita with A Straw, Guilty, and Axone. But who is Tenzin Dalha, and what’s his ambition?

- Mayukh Majumdar

The first time I text Tenzin Dalha to gauge his interest in an interview, he wants to get on a call. All I want to do is get an 'okay' from him, and report back to my editor, because I'm already playing catch with my deadline. And besides, who prefers calls over texts, anyway?

When we get on a call, the first thing Dalha wants to know is, why him? Nothing about how ‘prominently’ the profile will feature, or what the focus of the interview will be. I tell him it's because we loved his performance in Guilty and Axone, and would like to see more of him. I leave out the fact that he’s got a dreamy smile. Dalha is also one of the few known faces to be starring in the AR Rahman musical, 99 Songs. What made him so special that he got a chance in the maestro’s musical? I gave a kickass audition, Dalha says, laughing.

Dalha stayed at Rahman's guest house, and his classes would begin at 10 in the morning. At the KM Music Conservatory (founded by Rahman in 2008), everyone had been training in music for years, and now, they were there to hone their craft andmake music productions, which is next level. It was a combination of your innate musical talent with technology, Dalha says.

While Rahman never took classes, he used to meet the students (which now included Dalha) once a month and see their progress. The atmosphere at the conservatory was such that Dalha ended up spending eight to 10 hours a day practising his instrument — the drums — without taking Sundays off. After about two months, he managed to get a drum kit into the guest house and began practising for 12 hours.

Dalha truly began to be noticed post the release of Guilty, which was about the #MeToo movement. While his character didn’t have many dialogues, he instantly stood out.