Born on November 19, 1985, Badshah's real name is Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia. The popular rapper. known for hits such as DJ wale babu, Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hai, Tareefan, Pagal, Genda Phool and Garmi, was born and raised in Punjab. In picture: Badshah and his wife Jasmine. (All photos/Badshah's official Instagram account and mid-day archives)
Guess what inspired the name Badshah? There's a very interesting story behind the rapper changing his name. "When I was looking for a stage name for myself, around that time Shah Rukh Khan's Badshah had come out and I was like you know that's a nice name. I discussed it with a few of my cousins and they started laughing and I was like now I'm pretty sure I want to call myself Badshah," said Badshah in a candid interview.
Though he studied civil engineering from Chandigarh, Badshah always wanted to enter the music industry. He performed for the first time on stage at his college festival.
"I still remember after a lot of begging we got an opportunity to open for Euphoria and were asked to perform for 15 minutes. When we started 15 minutes turned into 30 minutes then those 30 turned into 45; audience wouldn't let us go. It was a crazy night," revealed Badshah in one of his recent interviews.
"I have always been a very determined and stubborn person about what I want. So while my parents wanted me to study and follow conventional career paths, I truly wanted to pursue music as a career. So I did both. I studied hard and completed my engineering. And I also pursued music that was my passion," he added.
Before creating waves in Bollywood, Badshah launched his first track in 2006 with Yo Yo Honey Singh. However, he shot to fame with his singles such as Proper Patola, Saturday Saturday and DJ Waley Babu.
Given that he commenced his decade-old musical journey with Punjabi tracks, Badshah grew to fame up north rather quickly.
But it was only after delivering the hit track 'Saturday Saturday' from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) that the rapper established his name across the country.
After making a debut on television as one of the judges in the musical reality show 'Dil Hai Hindustani', Badshah made his acting debut with Khandaani Shafakhana in 2019, fronted by Sonakshi Sinha.
But did you know Badshah could have made his acting debut with Karan Johar's segment in Lust Stories? He was offered Vicky Kaushal's role in 2018's Lust Stories, which Badshah declined.
Lust Stories wasn't the only one offered to the rapper. Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar's Good Newwz too was offered to Badshah. Diljit Dosanjh's role in Good Newwz was offered to Badshah first.
Coming back to his acting debut Khandaani Shafakhana, Badshah said comedy is a tricky thing and he credited the entire team for helping him get the elements right. "It is a great film to debut with. My respect for actors has grown immensely after doing this film. I think it (acting) is not an easy job," said Badshah.
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