Bollywood Special: I started playing the piano when I was just five. We’re in Lisbon, Portugal, where my father was posted as a diplomat. Initially, I was not allowed to touch the piano as I was too young. But I would sneak into the room and play it regardless. One day my father was struggling to play a particular song correctly and I just couldn’t resist and asked if I could try.

He got the shock of his life when I played the tune back to him faultlessly. This moment changed my life as my father realised that I had talent and from then on he began encouraging me to focus on music.

When I was seven, some journalists from BBC televison came to our place and my father asked me to play for them. The were so impressed that they went on to make a television programme on me.

A few years ago – as everybody knows – I used to weigh a mammoth 230kg. i needed two people to just life me up. Doctors gave me just six months to live if I didn’t lose weight. So i flew to Houston and met a nutritionist who put me on a high-protein diet. I wasnt allowed to have rice, bread, sugar or oil. I took me two gruelling years to knock myself back into shape. I now weigh 80kg.

Losing my father in 2009 was another life-altering moment. He was my pillar of strength. It took me four years to record an album after he passed away. It’s called Press Play and as a mark of respect I have dedicated a song to my father called Baba.

Source: Telegraph India