Badshah on competition with fellow Punjabi Honey Singh
Badshah is making his first-ever visit to Hyderabad on Friday
With his Saturday Saturday and Abhi Toh Party still rocking nightclubs, Badshah is the rapper of the moment in B’town. He is also being seen as a competition to fellow Punjabi and rapper Honey Singh. Before his first-ever visit to Hyderabad for a concert on Friday, Badshah responded to that ‘The next Honey Singh’ tag: “Honey and I are doing the same genre. So comparisons are bound to happen. But we aren’t competitors. Not many know we worked for 4-5 years together before Honey decided to pursue a solo career. We wrote together, collectively, and gave hits such as Angrezi Weed and Brown Rang.”
Though the separation was amicable, they haven’t seen each other since. Here Badshah adds, “Honey’s been unwell. But he’ll come out of it soon.”Even Badshah came out of the “collective career” soon, leaving his civil engineering degree far behind, and delivered his first, solo and commercial hit, Saturday Saturday in 2012. This party track was later bought by Karan Johar for his film, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania.
Unbelievable as it might sound, but Badshah doesn’t like to party. And why? Well, he sleeps early, doesn’t talk much and doesn’t know how to deal with fans! “But you know, some fans have my name tattooed on their bodies. That’s special. I have posted a picture on my Instagram,” he says.The Delhi-based artiste shared his own “fan story”, the one that turned him from Aditya Pratik Singh to Badshah. “I love Shah Rukh Khan. So, when I had to choose a fancy screen name, I chose the title of his film Badshah.”
His filmi association goes beyond his name. He wants to be a film director. “I write stories. Some have become songs, others could become a book or a film in future,” he says, adding, “Stories come to me when I am driving, sleeping or when I am observing things around. If a rap comes to me while I’m in bed, I record it on my phone.”
But how did he start rapping? “It was a random rap as a Class XI student. To scare my opponent in a basketball match, I started rapping on the lines ‘I’ll defeat you’. That boy asked me ‘what did you just do? repeat it’. I did that. He told me to do the same thing at the club, where he was a DJ. I did it and people liked it. I realised I could engage people.”
Signing off, Badshah admitted that his wife, Jasmine, who is from the UK, hates his music and that his father slapped him when he admitted to pursuing rapping as a career!
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