THE award-winning British DJ and producer Naughty Boy has been working with British actress Jemima Khan and Indian Director Shekhar Kapur on their project What’s Love Got to do with It?, which is due in 2022.
In 2021, Naughty Boy,41, was announced as a contestant on the twenty-first series of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.
Despite threatening to leave multiple times, and having regular arguments with campmates, he survived 16 days before he was eliminated on 8 December 2021. “I am not a celebrity at all. My music is the celebrity and now is the chance for me to show people what I am really like. I don’t know what people in the music industry will think about me being in the Castle but having a break from everything is something I think everyone should have and do once a year,” he said about participating in the show.
In February 2022, it was revealed that Naughty Boy and director Gurinder Chadha were among the stars who met Prince Charles the day before he tested positive for Covid.
Naughty Boy said that music “saved” him during the Covid-19 lockdown and has called for more “special protections” for the industry.
In his opinion, music has a “power” that can help people more intimately than some relationships – as it aids wellbeing both “mentally and spiritually”. He says that his biggest struggle during lockdown was “living with my mum who has dementia”. “As a family (dementia) can seem like a lonely experience… you don’t think anyone will understand. It affect your mental health. Especially as Asians, everything is closed (private)… you don’t speak about what’s going on in the family… mum’s at the point where we don’t know what she’s going to say,” he says.
For the double MOBO-award winner – who has produced songs for the likes of Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith – the most difficult experience with his mother was when she recently failed to recognise the 36-year-old.
Born Shahid Khan, Naughty Boy’s journey to becoming one of the most sought-after names is surely one for the movies.
Music was always what he wanted to do. With a £5,000 grant from the Prince’s Trust, and the £44,000 he won on daytime television game show Deal Or No Deal, Khan kick-started his career in music. Khan’s first major work was his songwriting and production for Chipmunk’s Diamond Rings that reached the top 10 in UK in 2009. His mainstream breakthrough was in 2013 with La La La featuring Sam Smith. The track became a global hit, and its success set the stage for the release of Hotel Cabana, Khan’s guest-loaded debut album for Virgin.
The one unfulfilled musical ambition is to compose a James Bond theme.