One among a wave of infinite participants waiting to audition for Indian Idol 10, Salman Ali recalls being approached by a co-aspirant. While he didn't instantly recognise him, the person who tapped on his shoulder was his "bachpan ka dost" Nitin Kumar. Except that, before Idol had them call truce, their childhood friendship had taken a five-year sabbatical. Kumar suggests that a third person had something to do with their falling apart, slipping in that piece of information as quickly as he brushes it behind us. Ali draws us back to the event. "Nitin had put on so much weight that I couldn't recognise him. When he approached me, I was like: 'Tu kaun hai, bhai?' When he introduced himself, Ali chided him with a: 'How much did you eat?'"

Put together before us as part of this interview, it is easy to see that their banter aside, this duo always has one another's back. Untouched by the arrogance that could attach itself with the kind of stardom they've received, they are both precisely the way viewers have known them to be, ever since their brush with fame eight months ago. Except that their phones buzz too much, and they are easily distracted by them. And all the travelling ("Sometimes I'm in London, and Salman is in America") has had a grooming effect on Kumar when compared to the way he was presented in Idol.