After a slow start at the box office, Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga has picked up pace, driven by strong word-of-mouth. Several videos of audiences leaving theatres teary-eyed have surfaced on social media. While the film, set during the turbulent Partition era of 1947, carries a deep emotional hook, it is AR Rahman’s music that binds the narrative together.
The one song in particular – Tere Paas Main – is going viral on social media. While fans have been deeply moved by the soft voice of the female singer in the track, not many know who she is. The song is crooned by Deepali Sahay.
Deepali participated in Indian Idol 20 years ago
Deepali Sahay grew up in Bihar and began singing at the age of three. She first gained recognition after participating in Indian Idol Season 3 (2007) at the age of 18, while preparing for her 12th board exams. After the Main Vaapas Aaunga song went viral, Deepali’s audition clips from the reality show have also gone viral on social media. In the clip, judges are seen impressed by her voice.
However, she could not win the show and was eliminated, but the host, Mini Mathur, even predicted that the audience would one day sing along to Deepali’s tunes—and that prediction came true in 2026.
Deepali Sahay’s almost lost her voice
In a recent interaction with The Hindu, Deepali shared that singing on the reality show and later hosting it for another season badly bruised her voice, so much so that the doctor warned her she might lose her voice completely if she continued rehearsing.
She said, “A doctor told me to stop even thinking about singing and that I will never be able to speak if I continued doing riyaaz (practice). As a youngster, it impacted me a lot. It wasn’t fair for the doctor to be so harsh but it managed to successfully keep me away from singing for long.”
She then pivoted to acting and even took admission at FTII. However, she soon met cinematographer Baba Azmi, brother of actor Shabana Azmi, who pushed her to sing again.
After years of struggle, she finally got her Bollywood break, crooning for composer AR Rahman in Imtiaz Ali’s film.