Here's why Baba Sehgal’s new video on US presidential candidate Donald Trump is an online sensation
A screen grab from the video Trump Ka Mania; (inset) Donald Trump
Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him. Donald J Trump's journey for US Presidential candidature began with bizarre, rousing speeches and instantly spread on social media like a baby panda's video.
A screen grab from the video Trump Ka Mania; (inset) Donald Trump
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From then onwards, he can be spotted everywhere — at dinner conversations, social media wisecracks, memes and Mumbai hoardings. But now things have moved a notch up, as he becomes the part of the oeuvre of Baba Sehgal, the rapper who brought the genre to Indian television in the 1990s, and now has made a comeback with much cheer.
Rave response
Sehgal's video, Trump Ka Mania was released on August 27 and has garnered over 1.7 lakh views already. The rapper says it is not a satire or tribute, just an accidental ode to a mania. "I was travelling one day when I heard a few people speak about Trump and his campaign. I found it interesting and then the lines, Trump ka mania, Mumbai to Kenya came to me. The rest just flowed," explains Sehgal.
The rapper says he follows politics and events around the world. "I don't follow election campaigns for the sake of knowing who won or lost. There is more to events than just election victories. Both sides have positives and negatives," he says. When asked to predict the outcome, he says Trump might just make it given the fanfare and noise around him.
The politics
"Both Hillary (Clinton) and Trump are strong candidates and are into all sorts of drama to make it. But it seems that Trump might have a good chance being an outsider and the more interesting candidate," he reasons. So will Sehgal, too, at some point want to make it in politics as an out outsider? After all, we can vote for him just for the lines, "Nominee hai US ke rashtrapati ka/fruits me deewana hai nashpati ka."
He chuckles and says, "No, no," chuckles some more, and says, "Who knows, if such an opportunity comes along." Sehgal agrees that his second coming has been largely due to social media and is all praise for the platform.
"I do not have a company to back me. I started uploading videos on Facebook and Youtube and received an overwhelming response," he says. Sehgal's second coming started with the video, Going To The Gym, that found takers online. "I did not want to become a has-been. There was a cluster of music stars in the 90s who are not creating anymore. I did not want to become a past. Now, with every new video, I am competing with much younger musicians and I love it," he says.
Fan flood
Though fans flood his pages, the rap king does make time to respond to messages. "I get over 20 thousand messages a day. The diversity of the countries I get such messages from is quite amazing. From neighbouring Sri lanka and Pakistan to Japan, Korea, US and Canada. I try to respond to as many as possible," he says. Well, fans who do not get a response can be content with lines like these — News mein hamesha bane rehna usko aata hai Good for him haamare baap ka kya jaata hai
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