Success in reality shows gets you nowhere: Toshi Sabri

But upcoming face of Bollywood music industry Toshi would be a whole another story. Trying to be co-operative, as he poses for photo-shoot or talks during a promotional event in the cit, Toshi seems a lot sought after and mature for his age. For a man heading from a small village of Rajasthan, his language and conscious choice of words will astonish you. He won country’s heart as acontestant of a famous reality show, and then went on to find space in thebigger picture. “It wasn’t easy”, says Toshi, if in caseanyone one is under the impression that music reality shows are an easy entry inBollywood, “your success in reality shows alone would hardly take youanywhere. I fought with a complete downfall for a couple of years after theshow, before Raaz happened”. The singer-composer, with his younger brotherSharib, shot to fame with the song Maahi from the movie Raaz, which the duo hadsung and composed. He started learning music from a very young agefrom his father who is a sufi singer. When you ask him, rehearsing in thathumble backdrop, did he ever know that he will make it big someday, he sparesyou of all the cliché replies, saying, “After a point, I hadrealized that I don’t belong here. I knew that I belonged somewhere in abigger picture, aur tabse ek junoon tha dil mein”. With those dreams andalso to fulfil his responsibility as an elder son of the family, he left forMumbai and started his struggle to find his place in the industry. He joinedprofessional troops and performed as a stage-artist until he eventfully found aplace in a music reality show where he caught the eyes andbuzz.“I have always been independent so I was not countingmuch on my popularity during the show, but I was lucky that the promise that wasmade to me by a director on that show was eventually kept. But then it’syour substance and passion in the end which takes you to the final place”.Ask him ‘what is music for you’ and he says, “Instead ofheart, music beats inside me. It's more than oxygen, it is better than an orgasmfor me”.Asking his thoughts of the current reality shows’scenario, he says, “Ab ‘ati’ ho rahi hai. Everybody thinksthat coming on these shows and having a very emotional or touchy story would dothe job for you. That isn’t how it goes. Even the shows are too commercialnow, so they show all the more of that”. Toshi, who got involved in asmall hullabaloo with a judge in another reality show he participated,isn’t complaining about the choice of judges, saying most of them deservetheir posts. But when suggested an idea of having the voting system, also tochoose the judges-panel, he gets excited, “It’s a nice idea. Firstthing I’ll do after reaching Mumbai is to suggest it to Gaj ji (TVproducer Gajendra Sing)”. And on that note he signs off.