Afterwards, the tracks like 'Panga'(2009), 'Chaska'(2010) and 'Lak 28 Kudi Da'(2011) gained popularity and won many awards. By this time Honey Singh had become quite popular in the Punjabi music industry.
But the real turn in Honey Singh's life came when he released his album 'International Villager'(2011) released on 11 November 2011(11.11.11) which became popular nationwide not only with Punjabi's but all types of people in the country. Track 'Brown Rung' from the album topped youtube's chart of most popular videos of 2012. Another track 'Gabru' from International Villager featuring singer J-Star topped Asian music charts (including the official BBC Asian charts). This album made Honey Singh a nationwide star.
Following International Villager Honey Singh released several songs most of which gained a lot of buzz and popularity.
Honey Singh entered Bollywood with his song in the film 'Shakal Pe Mat Jaa'(2011). His track 'Angrezi Beat' from International Villager featured n the film 'Cocktail'. Honey Singh has several more songs lined up to be released in coming up Bollywood movies.
Meanwhile in the aftermath of 2012 Delhi Gang Rape Case Honey Singh was accused of writing lyrics of a song depicting violence against women. This became a big issue and caused a nationwide uprising against Honey Singh.
Honey Singh's Journey in his own words
In an interview with The Times Of India Honey Singh talked about his life. Here are his own words:
"When I was a kid, I used to learn the tabla, but after that, my family didn't encourage music. My father wanted me to be an engineer and join his business. I didn't understand that because I'd started learning music programming through the internet, and because music is all digital now, I wanted to learn more. I didn't get permission for that, so I left home. It was a lot of struggle, a lot of meeting people and understanding the industry. The idea was never to be a rap artiste or a mainstream artiste, the idea was to be a music producer. I started working in England, but I had no identity in the music industry. I came to Mumbai in 2004, and lived there for eight months. I tried a lot, but nothing happened. I went back to England, where anyway UK bhangra artistes were very popular. The next time I came to India, I met Ashok Masti and made a song for him, which he didn't understand at the time. Six months later, he asked me to complete it. When I came to India with it, I saw that they were even making a video for it. That was Khadke Glassi. I used to be fat then, but I was in the video anyway. That song was very popular, but then what?
Some friends suggested that Punjab has a big music scene, so I shifted base to Chandigarh and started rapping in Punjabi. I started getting many Punjabi awards, some songs, like Chaska and Lakh 28 became so popular that they reached Delhi and Mumbai. I had a lot of friends in Delhi, who told me, 'tere gaane Dilli mein bahut chalte hain, lekin koi tujhe nahi jaanta.' So, I decided to make an album. Whatever money I'd earned in six years, I put it all in an album called International Villager. I had no big channel, no label; a small company from Punjab released it. I made videos for it and decided to put them up on YouTube, on the company's registered music channel. It was about the urban youth. Nayi baatein thi, clubs jaana, dope, parties, fashion, high heels. I maintained my fitness because I knew I was on the way to becoming a mainstream artiste. And then, the album became very popular. I got calls from very established people from Bollywood. Saif Ali Khan's office called to say that they wanted Angrezi Beat for their film. I thought, yeh toh bahut badhiya ho gaya, kal tak toh humein koi channel muh nahi laga raha tha, yeh toh Bollywood bhi aa gaya. We were number one on YouTube in 2011 and 2012."
