Sammy Chand

At 16, Amaal Mallik used to stand outside a gate in Mumbai with a keyboard and no songs.

The gate belonged to Vishesh Films. Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt. The house that gave India Aashiqui. He’d watch young directors walk in, Emraan Hashmi walk out, and think: once this gate opens and I get to play one song, I’ve arrived.

He didn’t even have a song yet. He just knew that was the room.

Here’s the part people get wrong. They hear the surname, grandfather Sardar Malik, uncle Anu, father Daboo, and assume the gate opened for him. His grandfather worked with the Bhatts’ father in the ’50s. His uncle worked with the Bhatts in the ’70s and ’80s. His dad in 2001.

The call still took him 20 years.

In between: a debut with Salman Khan attached that tanked. Headlines calling him “not a chip off the old block.” 2014, the family losing the house and both cars. A phone call to his masi in New Zealand, telling her he’d come work at a McDonald’s or a petrol station.

Nine months later, “Sooraj Dooba Hain.”

Then 12 years and almost 143 songs. And finally, “Yeh Awarapan.” Written with Rashmi Virag from, he says, a very dark place. Two years in the making. Sung with Arijit Singh. From Awarapan 2, with Emraan Hashmi, presented by Mukesh Bhatt. The gate, finally, from the inside.

Number one song in the country. On the global charts. His words: all 20 years of that pain are in this one song.

He has a line for this. Samay se pehle aur kismat se zyada kisi ko nahi milta. Before your time and beyond your fate, nobody gets anything.

What I want to know Tuesday: what does the 36-year-old say to the 16-year-old still standing outside that gate?

Turns out he never left. @amaal_mallik

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