Baba Sehgal said that the underworld is threatened, asked him to stop making music: ‘Bollywood was very insecure with me …’.

Rapper and music icon Baba Segal recently opened up his challenging journey in the Hindi film industry, revealing how Bollywood’s insecurity and industry pressure shaped his career. With the feeling of Bollywood to get respect in South Indian cinema, Baba also shared a shocking encounter with the underworld, which threatened his passion for music.In a clear chat with Siddharth Kannan, Baba reflected on his visit to regional cinema, sharing that the South Indian film industry gave him the recognition that he never got in Bollywood. Citing his impressive body of work – including more than 250 Telugu songs, 35–40 Tamil tracks, and more than 25 Kannada numbers – he said that South took him seriously and embraced his music. In contrast, he described Bollywood as unsafe from his presence from the beginning.Sehgal believes that his direct and advance personality would not have aligned Bollywood’s expectations. He remembered how music directors would reach him, but perhaps he found his condemnable or off-painting. Despite growing for national fame with Indipop chartbusters such as Thanda Thanda Pani in the early 90s, Baba feels that his success outside the film industry may have uncomfortable and hesitated to embrace the Hindi film music scene completely.He also shared that he received a danger call from the underworld in 1998 – a time when such a threat in the entertainment industry was not uncommon. While he never imagined that he considered himself a “just a singer”, the incident came as a shock. He recalled how Anubhav gave a lot of stress to both him and his family during that turbulent period.Baba further revealed that the underworld call he received in 1998 was not about forced recovery – but warning to completely shut down music. He said, “He asked me to stop singing. Tone was not aggressive, but it was serious,” he said, saying that the calls often came at night, making it a deep experience. Despite the dangers, Baba chose to remain the course, creating a successful career beyond Bollywood with the support of his loyal fans and South Indian film industry.Baba Sehgal also reflected unrest in the entertainment industry during the late 90s. They described it as a misleading period when non-film music declined, the Remix took over, and the underworld gained impact. “It was not just me; the whole industry was shaken,” he said, highlighting artists with broad challenges faced during that era.