Anuj Sharma is a known singer from Himachal Pradesh. But his big break came when he managed to reach the final 14 in Indian Idol's second season. He had to leave the show, but many felt that he deserved a better chance. So Anuj Sharma was brought back into the show through a wild card entry. And he proved it right by managing to end the season as the runner up.

Now he is back in Mumbai from Himachal to complete his journey as a national level musician. Anuj Sharma has cut his first music album â€?Khwaab' under the label of Universal Music 

A chat with the singer -

Why did it take you almost three and half years to come up with your first album?

As soon as I finished with Indian Idol, I was booked for one year for shows in the north and all around world. Naturally, there was not enough time to even think about an album, let alone work on it, that too solo.

After a year, my music director Gaurav Dayal told me to plan an album, as a 'thank you' gesture to all the people who had given me a platform on the national level. He said that I needed to give something back to my supporters  Once I started working on it, we had to be sure that everything was perfect. Original scores, good poetry etc takes time.

Till now, you have done more than 44 albums in Himachal folk music. How is this album different?

It's so obvious that people would expect a folk influence in my Hindi album, also because of my knowledge and experience of Himachal music. But in reality, it's not like that. I have tried something completely new for the first time in my album and that is rock music. Gaurav also wanted me to do something new and completely different. I knew that if I tried any Indian music, people would search for the folk influence. So I worked extra hard and sung rock songs.

How have you managed to move from folk to rock as a singer?

Gaurav had given me some CDs to get familiar with the flavour and texture of rock music. I listened to them intently as study material  Few days later, when I visited him in his studio, he was busy recording some song. He asked me to try it and what I sang was rejected by him. It was a rock song. Later, he gave me a CD and asked me to practise the song. He left me alone for thirty minutes.
When he returned, I tried again and he then went on to correct me, tell me the voice modulations, literally trained me on different music platforms. I followed his advice. At that time, I did not know that in reality, Gaurav was actually recording the song. In two takes it was done, and after finishing the recording, he told me what he had done.

Tell us about your experience of shooting a video for your album?

We shot our video at Bangkok. It was the season of Holi. In Bangkok, Holi is played with gusto and for three days, they celebrate. Normally, it takes a two hour drive from the airport to our shooting location, but on that particular day, it took us 11 hours to reach.

Our camera person wanted to take my shot with locals playing Holi in the background. But the driver of our car did not allow it since we had not taken any permission. We felt bad because the festival and the activities would have looked so very beautiful in the video. We just kept driving for 11 hours.