Singer Sonu Nigam shaved his head today in response to a call given by a Kolkata-based cleric, who announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh to anybody who tonsured the Bollywood singer and garlands him with old shoes, after his complaint on Twitter about being woken up by azaans.
We did not expect Sonu will go through shaving his head to make a point. But the singer actually did it. Sonu called the media for a press conference, and also called famous hairstylist Aalim Hakim.
Later, he started interacting with the media and his fans or a while he excused himself, and in a few minutes, he returned to the press conference with no strand of hair on his head.
Earlier in the day, the singer reacted to the call by Syed Sha Atef Ali Al Quaderi, the vice-president of West Bengal United Minority Council, in a series of tweets, saying “so this is not religious gundagardi” and that he will get his hair shaved.
He said to the media he raised a social topic and not a religious one when he tweeted about being woken up by the sound of azaan, the Muslim call to prayers, and apologised “if someone thought otherwise”.
Sonu also said, “I am a secular person. It was not about azaan, it was about the loud sound. Playing loud sound on a speaker is gundagardi for me.”
Further clarifying his stance, Nigam wrote: "And by the way Mohammed did not have electricity when he made Islam...Why do I have to have this cacophony after Edison?
"I don't believe in any temple or gurudwara using electricity to wake up people who don't follow the religion. Why then..? Honest? True? Gundagardi hai bus."