Singer Hospitalized After Being Hit in the Back of His Head by Drone Mid-Concert

By Allison Schonter

Singer Benny Dayal is on the mend after he was struck by a drone mid-concert. The Indian playback singer was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries after a drone struck the back of his head during his live performance at VIT Chennai on Friday, March 3.
 
Videos shared to social media showed Dayal performing his hit song "Urvashi Urvashi" onstage when suddenly a drone, which was filming the performance, approached him. The drone camera was being operated by a crew member, per The Economic Times, and went off course due to a technical malfunction, causing the device to strike Dayal in the back of the head. The singer appeared to be in immediate pain as he fell to his knees and stopped singing, covering his head with his hands as management rushed to the stage. The singer was reportedly taken to the hospital, with Dayal telling fans in a video shared to Instagram not long after that he suffered a bruise to the back of his head and "two of my fingers got completely bruised." Dayal, who assured his followers "I think I am going to recover from this much faster," also called for stricter measures to ensure the safety of performers.

"I just want to express three things. All artists should make sure they have a clause that the drone cannot come close to them while they are performing as their movement cannot be coordinated. You need a person with you who is specifically working on drones," Dayal said. "Please all colleges, companies, show or event organizers, get a certified drone operator because it's very dangerous. The person should be certified to operate a drone," he said in the video."
 
Dayal continued, "We are artists. We are just singing on stage. We are not Vijay or Ajay or Salman Khan or Prabhas or some action hero. You don't have to do all these stunts. Just do a regular show. We just want to look nice." The singer concluded the video by stating, "the drones shouldn't come so close to artistes during a live performance."
 
Amid the incident, many of Dayal's colleagues were quick to send their well-wishes and echo his sentiments on safety. Singer Armaan Malik said, "Man this is messed up. get well soon Ben," with artist Sanjeev T writing, "Hope it wasn't too bad. Saw the video... it looked pretty careless. Drone operators and camera folks really need to put the artists first before their epic aftermovie. Stunts like this ruin the entire performance. TC buddy." Calling Dayal "one of the kindest and best persons I know," three-time Grammy-winning artist Ricky Kej said, "this this video, inspite of what you went through, is oozing with Kindness and empathy. More power to you. You are awesome."

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