National Award-winning singer Chinmayi Sripada on Thursday (October 21) shared a heartfelt and personal anecdote about Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and sent her prayers to his family as they face tough times amid the arrest of his son, Aryan, in a cruise drugs party case. Sripada sang the memorable melody “Titli” for “Chennai Express”, the 2013 action comedy starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, and directed by Rohit Shetty.
In a series of Tweets, Chinmayi said, “Years ago, when I sang Titli in Chennai Express, a superstar tagged me and said I sounded like love. If I remember right, it was the first time an actor, anywhere had said anything nice about my singing. I remember laughing and crying at the same time.”
She further said, “My mother noticed, and put out a long tweet, about everything she observed and a general thank you – because I am not the type to get excited in general for anything at all. I went to the Chennai Express Audio launch. A person remembered that LOOOONG essay my mother wrote and asked me to convey his respects to my mother. Cut to a few hours later, I was saying bye, taking leave of everyone, and he said he’ll speak to my mother. I thought he was joking and he wasn’t. He took my phone, spoke to my mother for some 15 minutes.”
“Made her feel like the most special being in the entire world and returned my phone. Cut to several days later when he came to Chennai – He took the effort to cut across a huge room with people waiting, found my mother and took her blessing by touching her feet,” she added.
The audio launch of Chennai Express was in July 2013 and at that time Shah Rukh had tweeted appreciating the Titli song. “The tweet from him made my day then. He tweeted saying I sound just like love. Shekhar sir introduced me to him at the audio launch and Shah Rukh Khan spoke to me, also called my mom to speak to her. He is extremely down to earth and has no trappings of a superstar,” Chinmayi told PTI at that time.
