The music reality show Indian Idol has been making a lot of buzz this year. Interestingly, not many people know that Television personality Raghu Ram once auditioned for the first season of Indian Idol, in 2003. Raghu was told that he ‘can’t sing’ and rejected by judges Anu Malik, Farah Khan and Sonu Nigam. Raghu then said to Anu that he did not appreciate his ‘rude’ tone. An old video from the auditions is going viral on the internet.
In the video shared on YouTube, Raghu was seen stretching before singing. “I need to do this before I sing. Some people do alaap and all,” he explained. Farah seems to be irked, as each contestant is allotted two minutes. “You have already wasted 30 seconds,” she told him.
Raghu sang Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo but the judges were unimpressed. “Bohot kharab gaaya aapne. Yeh kya best hai aapka, jo gaana chuna hai? Sonu asked, to which Raghu tells him that he felt they'd like the song. But Sonu dismisses it.
On being asked about his stretching before singing, he says he has a problem. Farah asks him if it's a 'singing ki problem'. Raghu replies, "It’s a problem in my body, please don’t make fun of it."Anu tells Raghu straight, "Acha, lekin aapne jo stretching ki, uske bawajood bhi aapki stretching aapke sur tak nahi poochi (Despite your stretching, your singing was not up to the mark).
Raghu asks him if he did not like his song. To this Anu replies, "Mere kehne ka matlab yeh hai ki aap gaa nahi sakte. Mere hisab se aap Mumbai nahi aa sakte (I feel you cannot sing and according to me, you can not come to Mumbai)." Raghu gets offended and said “Toh aap yeh baat tameez se bhi bol sakte hai (You could have said this politely as well).” He added, “I thought he was rude. I don’t like people being rude to me. I am sure you don’t like people being rude to you.”
Sonu defended Anu and said, “You have been rude too. Jab se aap andar aaye hai, aapka attitude aisa hai jaise ki aap star hai already (You came in with the attitude that you are already a star).”
Anu then said, “I am not being personal. You can’t sing.” Raghu made a finger gun and exited the room. Outside, he complained to host Mini Mathur. “Everybody is opening themselves up to get rejected. Uska faayda uthana aur unko beizzat karna (Taking advantage of that and belittling people) is not cool.”
Watch the video here:
Reportedly, Raghu later revealed in his memoir, Rearview: My Roadies Journey, that his Indian Idol audition was a prank.
