On June 9, Badshah (Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia) dropped his new single, ‘Paani Paani’. Like many of his tunes, this was a song you watched before you heard. The video featured a svelte Jacqueline Fernandez. She added an obvious oomph to Badshah’s already peppy number. In just one week, the video had been watched over 65 million times on YouTube. We have, of course, been here before. Last year, Fernandez featured in the video of ‘Genda Phool’. With over 820 million YouTube hits, it is Badshah’s greatest ever hit. Though the songs are different—‘Genda Phool’ sampled a Bengali folk song, while ‘Paani Paani’ employs elements of Rajasthani folk—they adhere to a tested formula. They have that same cocksure attitude.
Badshah asks us not to look at ‘Paani Paani’ as a sequel. The 35-year-old says, “I had visualised Jaqueline while making the song and when I sent it to her, she called me instantly and said, ‘This is a blockbuster. We have to do it.’” Badshah’s access to Bollywood’s A-listers has been hard-won. Having joined Mafia Mundeer in 2006—a hip-hop crew that included the likes of Yo Yo Honey Singh and Raftaar—Badshah says he was happy writing for others and giving creative inputs. When, however, one looks at the video of his and Yo Yo’s ‘Get Up Jawani’ (2011), it looks clear that Badshah was only a wingman, an understudy at best.
In 2014, when ill-health forced Yo Yo to retreat from the public gaze, he left behind a vacuum. The Hindi film industry was missing a musician who could belt out foot-tapping Punjabi tunes that would draw youngsters to both nightclubs and cinemas. Badshah, who broke out on his own in 2012, slowly came to fill this gap. His song ‘Saturday Saturday’ was included in the Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) soundtrack, but, finally, it was after his ‘Abhi Toh Party’ was heard in Khoobsurat (2014) that Badshah became a household name. His sound and sensibility, many said, were cleaner than Yo Yo’s.
“That rivalry between me and Yo Yo has never existed in my mind,” says Badshah. “I think grown-ups believe in healthy competition, not rivalries. I’m not being diplomatic. I have to look at what I can do.” Unlike Yo Yo Honey Singh, who for some time focused only on Bollywood, Badshah continued to ensure his independent discography did not become a casualty. His singles like ‘DJ Waley Babu’ (2015) and ‘Wakhra Swag’ (2015) are still party anthems. Some even credit him for having revived a languishing pop scene. “I do not want credit. Just give me your love and my money,” laughs Badshah.
Unlike the rapper’s independent repertoire, where he, for instance, cheekily references Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian, Badshah’s output for Bollywood can come to seem bland. The remixes, especially, sometimes jar: “I myself find substandard some of the songs I have remixed for Bollywood. I hate myself for doing it, for compromising on the quality of my work, for just jumping on this bandwagon.”
In 2020, Badshah, it seemed, couldn’t shake off criticism or controversy. Though he had sampled Ratan Kahar’s Bengali verse for ‘Genda Phool’, he had not credited him. Some felt this was tantamount to plagiarism. In August, he was then accused of buying 72 million fake views for his 2019 single ‘Paagal’. Badshah claims he is innocent on both counts. “But my honest reaction is ‘to hell with it’. Pseudo-intellectuals will trash my songs during the day and then dance to those very songs at night.”
Badshah says two things have changed for him since he started out: he feels more hunger and more pressure. “I have been stereotyped into this commercial artiste who will not be able to compete with those rapping in the underground. I came across this comment the other day—‘How will he rap if he is driving a Rolls Royce?’ There are all these stereotypes I am now hungry to break.” Badshah has recently drawn inspiration from Fotty Seven and KR$NA, rappers he has collaborated with, but his only competition, he says, is that backbencher spitting rhymes, “the guy without a care in the world”.
Badshah’s life goal is hardly surprising: “I want Elon Musk to send me to Mars. My audience will be the universe and there’ll be a live telecast. That’s how long I wanna last. I want to be the first universal artiste.” For now, though, his parents are keeping him grounded. Badshah has been living with them since the pandemic struck last year. “It is such a joy to argue with them and then eat their food.” His father wanted him to be an IAS officer. Is he happy with this turn of events? “Oh, he will always be worried!”
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