I am not used to writing, but i don't know i am finding this Blog thing pretty interesting. So here I am, back with another post. Its about how the show - "
India's Got Talent" happened to us, and changed our lives.
I remember finishing a meeting that busy day, and walking out of the conference hall when i received a call from
Bikram. He was quite happy and asked me what was I doing. I told him that i was coming out of a meeting and was going towards my desk, and asked him what was happening his side. We spoke for a while and then he popped a question that would change my life. - "Hey Bro! ... would u like to join me in a talent show called India's Got Talent, i need a partner and I don't have one".
Now before we go further, let me tell you how i met
Bikram Bhullar.
I was studying in my college in second year when i made a friend, who was actually my senior. His name was
Lovedeep and when he graduated from the college, he went on to join Dell
BPO in
Mohali. I was in my final year now and he was working in this call centre, but we were still in touch with each other. I used to visit him at his PG (he had rented a place in
mohali) everyday. Dell used to have (i guess they still do it) these shows every year where the employees would perform/sing/dance and they all would have a good time.
Bikram was in a band and he used to play Bass guitar. He performed at these events regularly and was a well known guitarist in Dell.
Lovedeep and
Bikram became good friends, as they both had similar interests (music), and also their last names were the same - "
Bhullar", making their friendship more stronger. In Punjabi's, its like if you have a friend with the same last name, you are more like brothers to each other, and would stand for each other no matter what. They used to hang out together all the time, get high together, check out
gurls together ... if you know what i mean. I was also a member of this gang at that time, and I met
Bikram one day at
Lovedeep's place. He was like "Hi
Wassup!" and i was like "Hey!
nothin..
jus chillin". So you can say, we did not speak to each other much.
Lovedeep told me that he plays the guitar very well, and he likes hip hop a lot. Soon we all friends started sitting together at times, getting high, and we all would sing and
Bikram would play the guitar. It was after then, we all became good friends and started meeting each other quite often.
After my graduation in 2007, i got a job here in Bangalore and i moved to the city, rented my own place and started my new life. Me and
Bikram were not in touch for a while and would only communicate a little on Orkut or
Facebook. I got busy in my life but also continued making music on my PC.
Bikram knew that i was making music,(as i used to publish links of my songs on orkut/
facebook) and one day he asked me to check a Rap song which he wrote. The song was "
Shikra Yaar". I liked the track and I told
Bikram that he should record it again with a better mic, and i can probably add some more stuff to it later on. He sent me the
Acapella of the song(vocals without music, are referred to as
Acapella) and i started playing with it. He sang the song in Punjabi and i thought may be we can add some English verses to it, making it more groovy. It was then, i wrote my first ever Rap. It was not something very cool, but just random lines i had put together, but they were rhyming well. I recorded my vocals as well and sent it back to
Bikram. He liked it and said that we should make more tracks together. It was then, when i realised that i can Rap too. I just got hooked on to this new thing called "Rapping" and started writing often. I used to carry a notepad with me all the time, and would write all these bits of words and lines which I would put together, later. It was fun and i was loving it!
So now, back to that life changing question that
Bikram asked me - "Hey Bro! ... would u like to join me in a talent show called India's Got Talent, i need a partner and I don't have one".
I heard the question and i was like "what is the show about?". He told me that it was a talent show and would be aired on TV on Colors channel. He had asked couple of his rapper friends from Dell, but no one was willing to join him as they thought they won't get leave from work. He asked me whether he should go ahead and register my name in the show with him. I said "Yea Bro! go ahead! it will be fun!". I never thought it would turn out to be so much fun. So we both registered for the auditions, which were held in Delhi. We have a friend who lived in
Noida and we stayed at his apartment. I took a flight from Bangalore, and reached Delhi quite late that night.
Bikram was working on his laptop when i walked in, with my bag full of Cd's and my laptop. We sat together, chilled out for a while and started practising the song which we had to perform in the audition. The song was "
Chal Jhoothi", a song that would change our lives(we never knew it would though). The auditions were to be held the next day, 8am, and we were supposed to be sleeping, getting some rest. But, guess what, we were up all night talking, jamming, practising the song, having a good time. We didn't sleep that night, and went to the audition venue in the morning, with our instrumental CD in our hand. Our eyes were all puffy and we looked so gloomy but still, we were excited. We reached the venue sharp at 8am, but our turn to perform, came at 4pm. It was a long day waiting in the holding areas, with other participants. We saw many different acts, some cultural, some urban, and were thinking - "Man! we are the only rappers around, are they gonna like us? Do they even like Rap?". Lot of questions in our heads.
BANG! We nailed the auditions with "
Chal Jhoothi"! It was a great feeling when we came out of the auditorium and every body was congratulating us. We never thought that the judges would like the song so much, as we thought they would hardly understand us and what we are saying. Anyways, we were flying high on having this success. I came back to Bangalore the next day and it was back to my usual life.
Our episode of the auditions aired on 5
th July, 2009 on Colors channel, where we both were singing "
Chal Jhoothi" on national TV! It was a sight never seen before, and I was really happy. I remember i was on my phone that whole night, talking to my family and friends. Most of my friends were like "How the hell are you on TV today? You never told us. Whats going on". I never told my friends that i was performing in this show, and i wanted them to be surprised when they see me on TV. I soon was popular at my work, in my colleagues, and in my friends. I was feeling it! This was what i always wanted.
We got a call in July first week, where the lady on the other side of the phone, told me that i and
Bikram had made it to the Semi Finals of
IGT. I was jumping up and down with joy! She told us to get ready and reach
Mumbai on 14
th July for the next shoot. Boy, we were ready as we can ever be! I packed my bags and headed to the city of dreams. It was my first time in
Mumbai, and i was excited. I reached the hotel, with
Bikram waiting for me. It was the first time we met after that audition, and we hadn't even celebrated the success of "
Chal Jhoothi". So we were out looking for a Beer shop, as liquor in the hotel was kinda expensive. We got some beers, headed to our room, and had a good time that evening. The next five days were full of shootings for reality bytes(the movie bit which you see before the performance), rehearsals and other stuff. We used to leave early in the morning and would return late in the evening. But, it was a great feeling, being front of a camera all the time, rehearsing. It makes you feel like a celeb. By the way, we got some hot girls to perform with us, in our song, and they were really Good! If you know what i mean...
It was 20
th July, the day when we were gonna do our thing once again, and this time it was "
Dil Di
Awaaz". It was a day for the main shoot of the Semi-Finals and we were all very excited. We performed the song "
Dil Di
Awaaz" and it was a divine feeling. Though the judges were not very happy, as they were with "
Chal Jhoothi", but who cares. We had done something which has never been done before on Indian television. We were rapping in front of a nation that does not even accepts this genre of music. Other acts were of singing and dancing, stuff which India has already seen many times on other reality shows. We were doing something different. We performed a song written by ourselves and not by some other artist! It was ORIGINAL!
The results were out soon and we got to know that we
haven't made it to the finals. We were a little sad, but a Beer made everything fine. Even
Eminem was booed off stage many times, before he could make it. We had a chance to perform two times, on national TV with not even a single "boo" coming our way. We are glad to have done what we like to do. The show might have ended for us, but i guess its a new beginning for us with more fun to come. We made so many fans and friends after this show, and it feels so good to reply to their mails, scraps and comments. I guess we have left a mark on their hearts which wont fade away very soon.
This is just the beginning and we intend to go a long way with our music. RAP is "Rhythm and Poetry" and we are the "Urban Poets". So, keep your ears and eyes open, coz "Desi
Playaaz" are gonna be back soon with more ... "Desi stuff".
Desi Playaaz profile has also been covered by simplybhangra.com website. Check it out! --
It was a long one, but i had fun writing it. Its 15
th August and its 6:00 am right now. A very "HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY" to all. I feel good to have given my feelings and thoughts some freedom through this Blog.
More to come soon...
-Harry
