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‘Your craze is more than ours’: When Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan were stunned by Abhijeet Sawant’s fame
Abhijeet Sawant recalled a moment when Shah Rukh Khan confessed to being his fan, while Priyanka Chopra also praised his immense popularity among audiences.
Abhijeet Sawant won Indian Idol in 2004.
Indian Idol has given many singers to the Hindi film industry, including Neha Kakkar, Rahul Vaidya, Monali Thakur, and others, but the place that Abhijeet Sawant, the winner of Indian Idol Season 1, has carved for himself remains unmatched. In a recent interaction, Abhijeet recalled the time when Shah Rukh Khan confessed to being his fan, while Priyanka Chopra also lauded his immense craze among fans.
Speaking to Radio Nasha, he said, “This used to happen a lot with me during that time. I think about these things now, but at that time, it was like a gust of wind. Rohit Bal met me once, and he told me ‘You are very precious. Please take care of him.'”
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Recalling the time when both Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra praised him, Abhijeet Sawant aid, “We were doing a show in Delhi, I had just won Indian Idol, Priyanka was also featuring in films at that time. But fans had a craze for me.”
He added, “It was December time in Delhi and there was a lot of fog, so all the flights were getting cancelled and we all were in a room. Stars like Rani Mukerji, Aftab, Shivdasani, Priyanka Chopra, and other 2-3 actors were present in that room. And Rani Mukherjee was speaking to somebody and saying ‘Do you what happened yesterday?’ The stars were talking very normally to each other. I felt so lucky that I am hearing these stars, like normal bitching was going on. At that time, Priyanka told me that your craze is more than ours. Because I was new at that time and the show had just ended.”
Talking about Shah Rukh Khan and how his entire family was his fan, he said, “Shah Rukh Khan said this about me on a stage. He said that his whole family watched Indian Idol and they are all my fans, including his sister. It was Shah Rukh who announced my name on the show and people went crazy.”