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The high note Varun Badola with mentor Akriti Kakkar at the show

“When I was growing up, becoming a singer was one of the vocations on my mind. Another one was to become a journalist. (His father is a noted journalist). I was better than a bathroom singer and definitely a better singer than a dancer.” For the uninitiated, he participated in Nach Baliye in the first season with his wife Rajeshwari. He continues, “More importantly, I grew up on hardcore classical music with Kishori Amonkar and Bhimsen Joshi as my favourites. However, things took a different turn and I got into acting. In the last 11 years singing took a back seat and when the opportunity came I realised it is time to fulfil some unaccomplished dreams. Now I am at peace.”

His mentor Akriti Kakkar praises his ability to appreciate good music. “He listens to such high quality music, that it was not difficult to mould him. It was just that he was too excited to sing difficult songs in early rounds.”

Agrees Varun, “I wanted to sing songs like ‘Seene Main Sulagte Hain Armaan’ from Tarana and ‘Naina Das Lenge’ from Omkara in the beginning but I was stopped, as I was not trained enough.”

On the constant danger of celebrity ego getting hurt on such shows, particularly the way Shekhar Suman and Sanjeevani argued with Mahesh Bhatt and Shabana Azmi on Jjhoom India, Varun says he can’t talk about others but the show helped him realise his normal self. Feeling humbled? “I am not big enough to feel humbled neither am I a fool to behave in an abrasive manner when somebody points out my mistakes in a field I know little about. As a participant you don’t get any advantage of getting away with your mistakes and then you realise your normal self.”

He thanks Rajeshwari, a singer in her own right, for her support. “In the beginning she was not interested. Then one day she turned up on the sets, gave her inputs, and we got good votes that week for a difficult song ‘Naina Das Lenge’. Since then she became kind of lucky charm for us. She started giving inputs at home as well. Particularly on how to bring ‘feel’ to a particular song.”

On the acting front, Varun is known to be extremely choosy, someone who decided not to take the saas-bahu boat. “I am not cut out for daily soaps. Even when I was doing Des Main Nikla Hoga Chaand, I was consciously against the saas-bahu trend and wanted to switch over to direction. Incidentally when I was mulling over the idea, Ajay Sinha offered me Astitva. Our sensibilities matched and the serial also did well. Again after Astitva, I remained without work for a year before I was offered Ek Chaabi Pados Mein, where again a different script caught my imagination.”

Despite critical acclaim, Varun has not been able to cross over to big screen. There has been a Haasil here or a Charas there, but that’s it. Has it something to do with his public relations skills? “See, I am a professional actor. If somebody likes my work, he should call me and I am always open for discussion. I don’t deride people who go asking for work, but I can’t spend hours waiting at a producer’s office.”

Doesn’t he think people with a spine are a rarity in his industry? “Maybe, but a strong spine doesn’t mean you can’t be successful here. We have people like Naseeruddin Shah.”

ANUJ KUMAR

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