To be a musician — or a follower of any art form — one has to be inspired. I was a simple Punjabi boy who started singing in school. But one day when I was flying kites in a field, I met a fakir who was singing the most soulful Sufi songs I’d ever heard. He had no instruments but his music touched my soul. This moment, 20 years ago, made me realise that learning music could indeed be a joyous experience.

Many years later, in 1998, I struck the right note in Bollywood with Chaiyan chaiyan, an A.R. Rahman composition, in Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se. The Punjabi version of this song was by Pir Baba, who is one of my favourite singers. I felt that a kind of divine message came through in this number, which went on to become a chartbuster. This was a major turning point in my career.

More songs followed and not only did I enjoy singing them, they went on to become huge hits. Rang de basanti, Beedi jalai le, Omkara Omkara, Bunty aur babli and Jhoom barabar jhoom, for instance, are some of them. The more recent successes have been Chak De and Dard-E -Disco. In Dard- E -Disco (Om Shanti Om), you can literally feel that the dancing is associated with a lot of pain. To me, that is what Sufism is all about.

Right now, I have two Hindi films coming up — Billoo Barber and Rab ne Bana Di Jodi — both with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. I’ve also finished recording a song for Steven Spielberg’s next untitled film and have completed a Hindi song, Jai ho, for Hollywood director/producer Danny Boyle’s Slum Dog Millionaire. The music for the song is composed by A.R. Rahman and the lyrics are by Gulzar.

(As told to Nandini Guha)