Madhur Sharma’s romantic number coupled with Sufi accents has been touching millions of hearts. In his recently released EP, Reversion, the singer steps out of his comfort zone and dabbles with genres that make a debut in his discography. Sharma was recently in Calcutta as part of his India tour and he spoke to t2 about Reversion and more...

Welcome to Calcutta, Madhur. Tell us how you plan to win more hearts here during your performance.

Calcutta feels like my second home. I’ve been coming to play at shows here since a few years now and the kind of love that I get from the audience is very different; it’s a great feeling. My genre is Bollywood and I merge it with Sufi music. And I guess people love that. So, I’m very excited because, among all my listeners throughout the world, Calcutta has a huge listener base and has always reciprocated very well to all my releases.

This trip has to be special because you are coming here with your EP Reversion.

Absolutely! Reversion is a combination of so many things. There are four songs in the album and every song has its own essence. While on one hand there is the evergreen flavour of Bollywood and Indie numbers, there’s also a fusion of Sufi. It’s been three weeks now since the release and we have already done four shows of the tour. The name of the tour is also Reversion, meaning ‘coming back to where we started’. We say that we have explored everything and now we are back to the same place and doing the same thing again.

Take us through the songs of Reversion.

The first song is called Kaafile, which is a travel song. If you are travelling, especially in the mountains, then you cannot skip this song, where notes of sitar create magic. The Himachali and Punjabi lyrics add to the flavour. Then there is Ranjana mera, and it’s a signature Madhur Sharma song that strikes a chord with aching hearts. Again, this is for people who are fans of Ranbir Kapoor and imagine themselves in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in the place of Ranbir Kapoor. The best part of the album is that it runs on your imagination because for the very first time, I haven’t shot any music video. I have left it on people to imagine it. The next song in the EP is Lal parranda, which is for all those people who are in love and who are getting hitched soon. The last one is Sajna di, which has an Afro-pop feel, which I have never tried before. I’m enjoying and loving it because people are supporting it.

Tell us about your inspiration behind the Bollywood-Sufi genre.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sahab has always been my biggest inspiration. I’m following him since my childhood days; my dad would listen to his songs. It’s been 10 years in Mumbai now and since I wanted to be different, I started blending my songs with Sufi music. Frankly speaking, I was sceptical and even afraid if people will accept my songs but they went viral. I’m really grateful and thankful to my fans for that.

Your songs get millions of hits... how significant are these numbers for you?

I literally don’t care about numbers because as far as I know, these things always stop you from moving forward. What I always care about is that even if 50 people are listening to my song and are able to relate and enjoy it, then I think it’s a big achievement for me.

What’s next after Reversion tour and album?

Post my India tour we have plans for a US Tour in March 2025. I also plan to shoot a few music videos of my songs there.