Yo Yo Honey Singh has become one of the team owners at World Kabaddi league. He talks to Samiksha Raj about his forthcoming music projects, reality show and why he is still ‘awaiting success’
Honey Singh has now joined the league of celebrities endorsing sports. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a World Kabaddi league (WKl), under the mentorship of Sukhbir Singh Badal, dy CM, Punjab and Pargat singh, Olympian and sports administrator, will roll out in August 2014 for international spectators in which the singing sensation will participate as the owner of one of the teams. Yo Yo credits his Punjabi roots, where kabaddi is a popular sport, as the reason for endorsing the team. “ladna, koodna, khelna hamare khoon main hai (fighting, jumping and playing are in my blood),” quips the star singer. He himself practises kickboxing and is an avid sports lover. “India is a cricket crazy nation where the big names actively participate in endorsing it which I feel is just a ‘style symbol’. I am fond of rough and strong sports like kabaddi, which represents a lot of strength. WKl is a great initiative to contemporarise kabaddi and position it as a professional sport. It is a great opportunity to promote and popularise a sport which is one of the oldest in our country but sadly has very little buzz surrounding it or its players,” says Singh. The singer has named his team ‘Yo Yo Tigers’ and is soon going to launch a title track for it.
WKl is the first international Kabaddi league to kickstart out of India and will be played across 15 overseas venues. Played in ‘circle style’, which is the most popular kabaddi format globally, WKl is loosely based on the Formula 1 touring sport format featuring ten international teams. “I’m quite hopeful that this tournament will be a massive success internationally, if not in India and it will draw a lot of kids who’ll relate to it instantly. There will be active participation by international players but there won’t be any bidding for the players unlike cricket’s Indian Premier league. My team will be taking the WKl kabaddi field for their first match in Toronto, Canada. The tournament will make its entry in India in October,” he says. ake shape similar to his music career which started from Chandigarh in Punjab and immediately transcendedes Sonakshi Sinha, in the music video of Superstar. Next in line are videos with Jacqueline Fernandes and Nargis Fakhri. He has also composed and sung a song for Salman Khan’s Kick, earning him the enviable distinction of working with almost all legendary Bollywood actors. Yo Yo is also going to embrace the small screen shortly, with his much awaited music reality show Raw Star, completing its auditions. It seems that he has his hands full as far as his forthcoming engagements are concerned. Talking about his success mantra, “I think I haven’t achieved success yet, please watch me out in 2015,” he signs off.