Originality over everything: Honestly, I don't want to change myself

In a day and age when there are so many singers, how many of us love the simplicity of Baba Sehgal's music? It makes us immediately share the video with our friends on social media. With recent internet hits such as ‘Bun Maska', and ‘Chicken Fried Rice' and ‘Rajma Chawal' earlier, among others, Baba Sehgal can see and hear music in everything around him, but most importantly food.

It is a stark difference from the kind of music he made back in the day, but quite similar at the same time in more than one way. He shares, "I still do the same music. I don't want to change who I am. I am who I am. It is up to the audience to accept me. You can rectify and do different versions -- 2.0, 3.0 or 4.0 but the zing of the artist should remain the same, the presentation is different. I do what I do, and what I did 35 years ago, I still do now. It is just that the presentation and packaging has been changed."

The popular Indian rapper is bringing this very version of himself on the ‘No Bullshit' tour that he has embarked on from September 15 till September 30. While the first performance was at Fandom in Bengaluru, it will be followed by Xora in Hyderabad on September 22, Obello in Bhopal on September 23, Talk About it in Indore on September 24, and One8 Commune in Pune on September 30.

Interestingly, this is his first-ever club tour in more than 35 years, and as he has juggled with concerts, and individual club performances, the club tour experience is unique. He expresses, "I have always been a club guy." It's more than that for him because it appeals to the DJ in him at all times. He shares, "The audience ranges from 500 to 1,000. The whole area is compact, and my music is also compact. The audience is very close. There is a distance at a concert and people are standing far away. At a club, a guy is standing next to you and may even offer you a drink, and that is while I am playing the song, and the cup is near me," he shares.

Role of social media
One of the most important aspects of this has clearly been the use of social media and the 'Thanda Thanda Pani' fame singer acknowledges it. He shares, "There is a lot of awareness because of social media. There are so many things that you see, so many videos, you can easily tap and see what is happening in which country."

He adds, "In our times, there was no social media, there was nothing. It was only reading, and whatever our music label used to tell us. Social media is such a huge platform. Be it Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and now Threads, there are so many places where you can release your ideas, your content. It depends from individual to individual."

As for Sehgal, he has adapted and enjoys every part of the process. While many may take years to release songs and albums, the Dubai-based musician relies on emotion to create music. "I do things from my heart because I am a very emotional guy. I want to connect directly with my fans. I think my followers are also increasing. If you work hard on yourself, your music, lyrics and delivery, then people will want to listen to you. It is a package, and the package needs to evolve."

With his food songs becoming popular over the years, Sehgal says he gets a lot of requests to make songs out of dishes and he indulges in them in different ways. He shares, "I get a lot of requests for these food songs. Fans say, 'make a song on Vada pav', 'make a song on chole bhature', so there are food songs like chole ke bhature in Bhangra, vada pav in Bhangra, and that's my forte. I can make them dance to Punjabi Bhangra with Aloo ka Paratha," but not without being his signature funny self-saying, "They say that when your stomach is snappy, you won't be happy". It is also how he made the song Bun Maska, Sehgal says he was busy enjoying some bun maska at a restaurant in Dubai when he had a good feeling about it. "The size of the bun is a little bigger than we get in India and then I applied maska, and created the line on the spot. I wrote the song, recorded it in the evening because I have my own setup here and it was done in a single day; I shot the music video the next day."

One may wonder why Baba Sehgal has such unique songs but the Indian rapper, who is known for these very same hits, has a simple though behind it. He shares, "People are very unhappy in the world. It's always better to give them something happy, positive, romantic and comedy." When they read the lyrics, Sehgal adds they should be happy and it should put a smile on their face and that's why his lyrics have always been like this.

So, how does Baba Sehgal think of such whacky song names and lyrics? "I should give the credit of writing catchy lyrics to my mother because when I was growing up, she made me follow Kishore Kumar's music. I am a huge Kishore Kumar fan and she used to buy his cassettes. I used to listen to Kishore Kumar's interviews, concerts and performances, and the way he used to talk." It did not take long for the young Sehgal to find his love for writing and even write his own compositions. "I used to even write Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells -- everything in my own style."

Now 35 years later, Baba Sehgal is enjoying every bit of touring because he hasn't done it in a long time. Even though, he is not coming to Mumbai this time around, the city is very close to his heart. "My career started in Mumbai and I have lived in the city too. Mumbai has an infectious energy so strong that everybody is moving. I like the energy and the positivity of the people and the city. People don't get into the negative aura and energy, they are just moving," shares Sehgal, who usually indulges in the bhel puri, and vada pav at Datta Vada Pav on the way to Pune.