Following a six-minute video from May 20 going viral with over three million views in less than a week, Sonu Nigam held a live chat on Facebook on Monday. The video sees the Bollywood singer singing in the streets of Mumbai, dressed as a homeless person. “Thank you for all your love, especially for Roadside Ustaad,” Nigam said at the beginning of the video posted by the online news site Being Indian. Roadside Ustaad was a “social experiment” conducted by Nigam as a teaser to the launch of his new single Crazy Dil, out on Tuesday.
“I’ll not just answer your questions but have a surprise planned for you — and a surprise for the ‘surprise’ himself — a little later”.
The surprise was for Shahbaz Ali Sayyed, a young man who had given Rs12 (65 fils) to the homeless person. Days after the video released, Being Indian located Sayyed to give him his “surprise of a lifetime”.
“I felt very humbled roaming the streets, with all the air pollution and the dirt. And to manage to be heard over all the cacophony singing without a microphone, it’s not easy thing to do,” said Nigam. “I also realised that [even though] the voice is the same, the person is the same, just my look — my clothes, the older look, my presentation — could make all the difference. And it was humbling to be appreciated by listeners in that state. What you see in the video is not much as I sang for hours in different places before a few people gathered to listen. One young man gave me Rs12. It was so sweet when he came up to me, held my hand and said, ‘Uncle I just want to shake your hand’ and gave me the money, without anyone noticing it. I don’t know how much money he had on him, but I was very touched”.
Soon after, a surprised Sayyed — who had already seen the Roadside Ustaad video — was brought in. He rushed to hug Nigam.
“Thank you so much for giving me so much love,” said Nigam returning the hug, as a visibly emotional Sayyed thanked him.
“I wanted to tell ‘him’ [the old man] that his voice is better than Sonu Nigam’s,” said Sayyed. “I realised I wanted to take a selfie with him after leaving him. But when I came back people said that man was mentally distracted. So I went away because I was afraid. [Your] social experiment has made me so [happy], I just can’t express myself. It is the most precious moment of my life”.
Sayyed said he came to know of their meeting through a friend.
“[After the video was uploaded], an ex-colleague messaged me saying ‘You met Sonu Nigam’ and I was, like, ‘when, where’. And she sent me a picture of the two of us from the video. I asked her ‘where is Sonu Nigam here?’ [That’s when] she sent me the link to the video. Your appreciation of me is too good, but in retrospect I feel embarrassed I gave you Rs12”.
Sayyed may be embarrassed but not Nigam who said they “meant a whole lot” to him. The Rs12 now have a place of honour in Nigam’s home. They sit framed, next to Nigam’s several awards.
