Having become an icon for many struggling artistes by refusing to `sell' his music, Rabbi Shergill gives Gen-Next a shot at seriousness while tapping their feet. Mandira Nayar finds out more....

His trademark guitar was missing. And unlike the usual entourage that follows a pop-singer, he came alone and surprisingly on time. An Indian pop-singer with a purpose, Rabbi Shergill's style of music -- a sort of Punjabi folk with a twist of rock -- that plays constantly on FM music stations seems to have touched a chord with the young as well as the old in some way.

In the Capital to inaugurate the Tri-Continental Film Festival by Breakthrough over the weekend, he enthralled the audience with his music. "When Breakthrough sent me an e-mail about inaugurating the festival, I thought do they have the wrong guy? I am a singer. I don't know why I keep getting asked for things like this. I also performed at the World Social Forum in Brazil. Fully clad, I had 10,000 semi-naked Brazilians dancing to my music. They didn't understand anything, but cheered me on," he says.

Far from fitting the conventional image of a pop star, Rabbi has defied all the odds of becoming a success in the glamorised music scene in India. He is probably the only Indian pop-singer who doesn't resort to a gimmicky music video. With no skimpily clad women or a story line with him as a hero, Rabbi's videos are usually just him, his guitar and his music. "May be it is a signal that I am sending out through my music. I want India to change. I want India to think. It is time for my generation to engage," he asserts.