Qazi rocking the vote

Mumbai, August 25: WHAT'S he got that I ain't got? That's probably what Indian Idol Abhijeet Sawant's muttering by himself. After only two months of being on air, Fame Gurukul finalist Qazi Toqueer has raked in 8.5 million votes—five times of what Sawant received.

This brown-eyed 20-year-old has survived the gurukul with almost feline instincts. For the sixth time last week, the judges placed him in the danger zone at the mercy of home viewers. And on each occasion, they've bailed him out, the numbers rising with every poll.

''Whenever peers and judges told me that I couldn't sing and have no future, I accepted it as a challenge to do better. I think people appreciate my confidence and therefore vote for me,'' says the Srinagar lad who has never undergone formal vocal training.

It was watching Indian Idol that inspired him to try Gurukul out, but Toqueer claims that he had it tougher than anything Sawant or Sana ever underwent. ''Idol was a simple format, with no probations or being monitored on camera 24 hours. I've even sung more songs than Abhijeet did on the show, about 14 so far,'' he says.

For him, hogging the limelight is top priority, whether by mimicking judges Shankar Mahadevan and Javed Akhtar, or belting out a passionate number at a college fest. ''I've always believed that the camera is my girlfriend,'' says the aspiring actor. ''Back home, I always had a handycam running, making home videos,'' he adds. Maybe that's what puts him at ease with the gurukul's hidden lenses.

He may not lead the way with singing talent, but the audience seems flawed by his persistence. Toqueer's X factor is a mix of histrionics, boyish charm and a funky hair-do.

So what does he do on a bad hair day? ''I think back to what Farookh Abdullah once told me in Srinagar. I'm a better dancer than Hrithik Roshan.''

Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=145650