Badshah the Spectator

Plonked on a couch, rap star and music composer Badshah has shed some weight, a sharp cut running through his eyebrows is the only exaggerated style statement he carries, other than of course, a bagful of honest confessions.  In Chandigarh for the Red Bull Tour Bus Stage at Mohali, Badshah will still call himself a ‘baby’, a baby who has just started out. Even when his fame is growing like an ivy plant, this sweet looking singer doesn’t feel it that way.

  Pretty unlike his songs which spell the word ‘PARTY’ loud and clear Badshah is not the party kinds. “No,” he moves his head, a movement that matches his announcement. “I am not the party kind at all. In fact, the other time, I went to Rhea Kapoor’s party I was out of it in flat 15 minutes.   Badshah has cleared his point to the point he wanted to. But he jumps ahead to explain the ‘where’ of party songs coming from. “I visit discs and clubs and observe what the crowd reacts to, what is the music that gets them on the floor, what song makes it moving for them. I sit in a corner and quietly observe all this,”.

It is this homework that helps Badshah in the classroom work. “Precisely, he lets the smile remain on his face, “this is how I make music for Bollywood. One should be able to catch the pulse of the audience and this is what I do.”   “I try to be different, I try to smartly try and sell them the idea that this is the kind of music that would sell, however, and they still end up asking me to make the music I have been making so far. So, this probably answers why the same party songs all the time.”

Badshah, who would love to see his tracks being picturised on John Abraham (his wife is a big fan of John), Akshay Kumar and Varun Dhawan, doesn’t prioritise with who he would want to work. “I don’t prioritise people, I prioritise my work,” he drops another one. “Now,  I have grown up seeing these big stars Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, do you think I would say no to them, if they approached me for work.” 

I love to work for Punjabi singers always. I ask for a certain price, if they can afford me, they can get me. At the same time, I have also done many Punjabi songs free of cost, without meeting the singer because I felt the person was honest. Everything is not about the price tag and not always!