MUMBAI: Indian Idol is one of the most popular singing reality shows. The show has returned with the 11th season and saw Azmat Hussain auditioning for the new season. Azmat Hussain is Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2011 winner. He is grown-up and is now 18-year-old. The singer, who went through a tough phase in the past, is trying to give his singing career another chance. 

For the uninitiated, Azmat won the kids’ singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs, and pictures of Shah Rukh Khan lifting him up with the trophy was all over internet. However, after doing several shows till 2013, he lost his way and started keeping bad company. To add to this, Azmat shared with Times of India that once his voice started changing with age “people around me started discouraging me from singing, saying that I couldn’t sing well anymore and I started hating my voice.” 

Azmat is now giving another chance to his singing career and that’s why he auditioned for Indian Idol. Though he couldn’t sing perfectly during the auditions, taking his past achievements into consideration, the show’s judges Neha Kakkar, Anu Malik and Vishal Dadlani gave him a chance and selected him for the next round. 

Speaking about his dark phase, he told the daily, “After winning Sa Re Ga Ma… I did a lot of shows. But after hitting puberty, my voice started changing. A video of mine singing at an event was uploaded on social media and I got extremely disheartened reading the comments that were posted on the video. People started calling me a bad singer. Those around me also started criticising my voice. Our voices change with age, but this is something not many understood. I went into depression and gave up singing. There was a point in my life when I started hating my voice. At the same time, I got involved in bad company. I started consuming drugs and chewing tobacco. The constant chewing of tobacco affected my jaw movement. I still face a problem when I open or close my mouth.” 

He added, “I don’t come from a financially sound family. I had to take responsibility from an early age and look after my family. I’ve never been to any school and have always taken private tuition. After 2013, I didn’t study at all.” 

He further told the daily that Salman Ali who was Azmat’s competitor in Sa Re Ga… inspired him to make a comeback. He said, “I am inspired by Salman Ali (who was interestingly Azmat’s competitor in Sa Re Ga…) who won the singing reality show last year. Despite coming from a poor family and having faced a lot of hurdles, he didn’t give up and proved his mettle on the show. I thought that even I should give singing one more try,” he says. “I am not proud of the things I have done in my past, but I have fought depression, overcome substance abuse and made a comeback on reality TV. Right now, I just want to focus on my singing and give my best.”