Tamil Amapiano: How South African DJs Won Over Benny Dayal

At the end of South Africa’s Heritage Month, Southside FM presenter Darshni Pather wrote in The Post on 12 October about a crossover that has been growing for months: Tamil amapiano.

Two South African DJs are leading it. Priyanka Vigneswaran, who performs as DJ PriPri, and DJ Prito have been reworking A.R. Rahman classics such as “Kannodu Kanbathellam,” “Chinna Chinna Aasai” and “Rakkama Kaiya Thattu” into what Pather calls “amapiano lounge bangers.” The remixes have spread on social media and at live events, and Pather says they are making Tamil music feel current for listeners born after the 1990s.

Benny Dayal and “Yaaro Neeyo”

Established names have noticed. Indian playback singer Benny Dayal spoke to Pather on Southside FM about “Yaaro Neeyo,” an independent Tamil single he made with DJ Prito that sets Tamil lyrics over amapiano production. According to Pather, Dayal enjoyed working in the genre so much that he is already planning another Tamil amapiano track.

The single came out worldwide on 18 August. Coverage by IANS, carried by Prokerala, credits production to Prito (spelled “Intiacandy” there and “Itiacandy” in The Post), lyrics to Vignesh Ramakrishnan, and mixing and mastering to engineer Ranbeer Sidhu. Dayal described it as a return to the Tamil independent scene: “I wanted to make something that was honest, intimate and timeless.”

Why Tamil amapiano matters

Pather describes the music as more than a remix trend. For South African South Indians, she writes, it is “a cultural bridge” that links pride in their diaspora heritage with South African musical invention.

Amapiano has already merged with local styles across the continent, producing Tanzania’s Bongopiano and Nigeria’s Hausapiano and Ojapiano. Here the movement runs the other way. The DJs are South African, the source material is Indian, and an Indian star is entering amapiano rather than an amapiano act chasing an Indian feature. The choice of source matters too. Rahman’s catalogue is among the best known in South Asian popular music, so these remixes reach a very large audience that already knows the songs.

For the business, rights come first. Unlicensed remixes of famous film songs can build an audience on social media but are hard to monetise. “Yaaro Neeyo” is an original collaboration, which avoids that problem, and Dayal’s planned follow-up suggests he sees it as more than a novelty.

It also points to an under-used market for South African promoters and DJ agents. Durban has one of the largest Indian-origin communities outside India, and the South Indian diasporas in the Gulf, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK are large and spend on live events. A DJ who can work both a Durban amapiano crowd and a Tamil festival stage has an unusually wide reach.