'I've never done anything vulgar'

Singer Indeep Bakshi, whose song Bad Wali Feeling has garnered 4m views, talks about why he’s proud about the adult content of his songs

Four years ago, when Indeep Bakshi composed the track, ‘Saturday Saturday’, all he wanted to do was tease his girlfriend, who was obsessed with clubbing every weekend. "I made this song in masti [fun]. Back in 2010-12, clubbing became an obsession with Delhi girls. I’d keep hearing from them, ‘Chalo Saturday party karne chalte hain’, ‘Par Saturday kab aayega’…They’d go on and on about Saturday," he laughs. The Delhi lad composed the track in Punjabi with lyrics that went, ‘Kudi Saturday Saturday, Kardi rendi eh, Kudi Saturday Saturday’, and released as a single.

Indeep Bakshi

In 2013, during a party at Shah Rukh Khan’s house Mannat, Karan Johar heard the Punjabi song, and decided to include it in his film, ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’, featuring Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. "I couldn’t believe my ears when the production company called me to say that they want my song for their next movie," smiles Bakshi, an architect-turned-musician.

Three years down the line, the 25-year-old has become a sensation with chartbusters like Kala Chashma, a song from the Katrina Kaif and Sidharth Malhotra starrer Baar Baar Dekho, that he has sung with Badshah. Other hits are Tere Liye from Dilliwaali Zaalim Girlfriend and 36 Aayengi 36 Jayengi, a Punjabi single. "The rap that I’ve sung in Kala Chashma was earlier used in my song ‘Don’t look at me’ from the album ‘Billionaire’ in 2013. It is slow and easy to understand. I’m not making something which people need to try hard to emulate," he says. The lyrics, he reveals, are usually culled out of conversations and peppered with slang. "The pronunciations might be flawed, but I let them go because that is how I speak. Karan Johar wanted me to tweak the lyrics of Saturday, and make it in Hindi. I stayed adamant, because I believe in my music."

Bakshi’s clear that his songs, like Booty Shake and Botal, are for the party-loving milleanials, with a good dose of cars, bikes, and of course, glamorous women in skimpy clothes in it. His new song, Bad Wali Feeling with Neha Kakkar, has crossed 4 million views till now. "Zee Music approached me to compose a promotional track for a Sunny Leone movie. And, when somebody mentions Sunny, bad waali feelings aati hai (you feel naughty). But, we made it clear that the video content is strictly for 18 plus," he says. But the song, that features Bakshi romancing a bikini-clad foreigner in Dubai, has garnered praise and brickbats in equal measure. "Many were offended because I called it an adult song. I haven’t done anything vulgar in it. I’m proud of the song. People need to change their mindset. We have bigger issues than these songs."

Bakshi, who would earlier sport a turban in his songs, has now given way to a beanie. "It so happened that while shooting for a song, a glass of alcohol accidentally fell on my kada and turban. The turban is a matter of great pride for me and I don’t want to disrespect it, so I began sporting a beanie," he says.

But, Bakshi now has Sikh fans criticising him for not wearing a turban in the videos. "It’s not easy to keep everybody happy. But, for my Sikh fans, I’ve decided to come up with an urban desi track - Singh Honde Badshah Te Kaur Hondi Queen - that will see me donning a complete Sikh avatar. It will be an ode to our culture."

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