I am the best, declares Mika

"I have started a number of trends in Bollywood, whatever I do becomes a hit. I brought the Punjabi flavour into Bollywood music and other musicians are following it. Even Rahman has put the Punjabi effect in his latest song 'Chiggy Wiggy'," Mika said on the sidelines of the auditions for 'Music Ka Maha Muqabla', a new reality show on Star Plus.

And that is just one of the many trends this 32-year-old singer claims to have set. The nasal-tone singing, made popular by Himesh Reshammiya, is also another style Mika claims to have introduced in Bollywood.
"Every film that I sing for becomes a hit. I sang the title track for 'Singh Is Kinng', which is Akshay Kumar's biggest hit till now. I also sang 'Mauja Hi Mauja' for 'Jab We Met', which was such a big hit," said Mika.

His self-appraisal might be a put-off for many, but Mika is too confident to be affected by any amount of criticism.
"I am not over-confident. Everyone has the right to say that he is number one. You can also say that you are the best, who is stopping you? Unless you say about yourself, how will people know?," Mika says.

He has also had his share of controversies - including kissing item-girl Rakhi Sawant at a party in June 2006.
Talking about his 'bad boy' image, Mika said, "It comes from the attitude that I show in my songs. I was the one who started singing with an attitude in Bollywood," said Mika.

The singer, who has also participated in reality shows like 'Jhalak Dikhla Jaa' and 'Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao', claims that he is offered every reality show, but takes up only few.
"I was offered Bigg Boss, but I thought when I am the big boss, why should I go for the show? I was offered Swayamvar too but I gave that away to Rahul (Mahajan)," Mika joked.

But now he has decided to become a mentor on 'Music Ka Maha Muqabla'. He is going to be the captain of one of the six teams, with Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, Mohit Chauhan and Himesh Reshammiya as competitors.
"Each of us are a threat to each other on the show. We are not only judges, we are going to perform too," said Mika.

Born in a musical family, with 'bhangra' and indi-pop artist Daler Mehndi as elder brother, Mika made his debut in the music scene with his album 'Ishq Brandy'. He went on to sing songs like 'Sawan mein lag gayee aag' and 'Gabru' which continue to be a rage till today.

Although he pulled himself up with his bhangra/pop albums, Mika seems to have plunged headlong into playback singing and has no plans to compose an album anytime soon.
"Nowadays every film has one or two song videos which have no link with the movie. The concept of independent albums is packaged into that video and you have stars dancing to it too. There is no point in making albums anymore," said Mika.

The singer is very true to his Punjabi roots and has no plans of exploring different genres."I belong to Punjab and I want to promote Punjabi culture. Why should I sing something different when I am so successful in this?" Mika asked