Exclusive: Actually, AP Dhillon originally wanted to be a basketball player

AP Dhillon was in 8th grade when he started playing basketball in Gurdaspur, Punjab after school. In fact, if things had turned out differently, we could’ve had AP Dhillon, the athlete, instead of AP Dhillon, the singer. “I always wanted to play sports, specifically basketball, and become an athlete be it for the NBA or India,” confesses the pop star. “I had a rough childhood, so those two hours every day were an escape from my life. I didn’t think about the good or bad things on the court, just that I needed to score those baskets. I hated losing,” he smiles.

So, what diverted his path towards music instead?—not that we’re complaining. “My village is 25 minutes from the Pakistan border, so resources were limited. If we broke anything on the court, like the ring or net, repairs would take forever. We’d also have to borrow money from our parents to pay for them ourselves,” he recalls. Due to infrastructural and financial reasons, the dream never made it past the court in his hometown.

When Dhillon moved to Canada in 2015, between his studies and working odd jobs at gas stations and convenience stores, he went from daily basketball sessions to daily to only playing on weekends. “When you’re working 12 hours a day, you don’t think about what you want to do. It’s like being in survival mode, I had expenses to take care of,” he reveals. And when his singing career took off, basketball took a backseat entirely.