Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently tweeted about Snehdeep Singh Kalsi’s rendition of Kesariya (Brahmastra Part One: Shiva, 2022) in five languages: Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Telugu. 

And the 31-year-old sales professional from Mumbai was delighted to receive this unexpected honour: “I never expected this to happen!” The PM praised Kalsi’s rendition of the song as a great manifestation of the spirit of “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat”. 

Kalsi, who was brought up in Gujarat, lived in Bengaluru for six years before moving to Mumbai. During this period, he was exposed to other languages. “My friends from different regions sang songs in their native languages, and I’d ask them to explain the meaning of the lyrics,” says Kalsi, adding that they often told him that the songs would sound great in his voice, which fuelled his desire to experiment.

“I wanted to do a cover of Kesariya, which was released in multiple languages. But agar main sirf ek language mein karta, toh mere baaki language wale friends bura maan jaate. So I did a mashup.”

His follower count is, of course, going up after the PM’s tweet. “On March 11, it was 2,900, and today it is 15,000!” ends Kalsi.