Gippy Grewal sold off all his ancestral land, ‘had no money’ after father suffered a stroke: ‘He didn’t live to see my success’

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Gippy said that it was his father’s dream to see him become a singer, but because he had no money, he couldn’t launch himself, which was the norm. “The trend in the late 1990s was to make music videos, which meant that releasing an album and videos would cost Rs 5 lakh. My dad wanted me to become a singer, but we didn’t have the money. So, I put together some resources with the help of my cousins and made an album.”

Gippy said that he made Rs 8000 from his first show, which was hardly anything even back then. “It seemed like a lot, because I wouldn’t even make that much earlier,” he said. Gippy said that his father died in 2003, before he’d tasted major success. “He wasn’t there to see my success, and that’s something that I’ll always regret. He was my biggest champion; he would train me and give me feedback; he would always ask me about my shows.”

In older interviews, Gippy has also spoken about the difficulties he endured after moving to Canada, where he worked as a mall janitor who cleaned toilets, a newspaper delivery guy, and also a security guard. He said that he used to make $1000 a month in Canada, which was a huge leap from the Rs 2800 that he would make doing odd jobs in India. But, he told Film Companion in an interview, he treasures these experiences because they’ve made him realise the value of his success.