MUMBAI: Hailing from the small city of Lakhimpur, in Uttar Pradesh, Shivam Pathak the composer of 'Mary Kom' did not even think about music as a career option. Instead he came to Mumbai to pursue a hardware networking course from a renowned institute. Destiny, however, had different plans for him as a friend encouraged him to participate in the reality show- Indian Idol. After getting rejected on his first attempt, he decided to learn classical music from Suresh Wadkar.

"I stayed at Suresh Wadkarji's house for more than a year to learn music and I did my riyaaz with him. We followed the 'guru shishya' parampara. And in the following season I once again participated in Indian Idol 5, and managed to place in the top five," said Shivam Pathak.

According to him, reality shows help contestants a lot in their playback singing career as most of the big shots in the industry already know you. "People like Vishal Dadlani, Salim Merchant already knew me because of my Indian Idol days. Also performing in front of these people boosts your confidence."

The film 'Mary Kom' happened to him after Sanjay Leela Bhansali heard his song 'Salaam India'. "He loved the song and this is how I got the entire album and I am extremely happy with the responses that I have got from my listeners," said Pathak. Right from the time he composed 'Sukoon Mila', he has always wanted Arijit Singh to croon the number for him. "I thank Arijitbhai for singing my debut song. I usually do not hear my own songs, but right from the time I recorded this track, I have listened to this track a number of times."

Pathak started off a singer, but loves composing too. About moving on from being a singer to a composer, he said, "I have always said that I am a singer first and I believe that every singer has an element of a composer." if given a chance he would love to croon a number for AR Rahman and Vishal Shekhar.

Apart from music, the 24 year old loves playing carom, chess, cricket and flying kites. After staying in Mumbai alone for quite a long time, he requested his parents to come down and stay with him. "My father retired a couple of years back and my mom is a home maker, so it was