Thane-Based content creator Neel Salekar will ditch the familiar one-minute reel format to sit down with vocalist Tejas Gambhir for a three-hour performance of qawwalis in tribute to late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan tomorrow. Unlike Salekar’s popular videos, there are no twists to this one. “We will present the compositions as they are, in all their stripped-down rawness, just how Ustad sang them,” he reveals. Over a short call, the two artistes unveil their journey and efforts behind setting up the show titled Shahensha-E-Qawwali, a hat-tip to the late Ustad’s dominance in the art form.

A far cry from his goofy Instagram personality, the 30-year-old Salekar adopts the sincerity of a seasoned artiste as he discusses the art form and Khan’s influence on his life. “I was a student of Fine Arts at Sir JJ School of Art in 2012 when I was introduced to Khan sahab’s ghazals by my colleagues. It was only a few years later that I discovered his qawwalis. The structure and presentation of the qawwalis had me hooked,” he shares, adding that it was only when he learnt Urdu during the lockdown in 2020, that he stumbled upon the true essence of the qawwalis. “We often like qawwalis because their rhythm is easy to catch onto. But the lyricism in qawwalis is ethereal; that’s where the magic lies. People may interpret in different ways, all of them making perfect sense,” he adds.