Bollywood playback star Sonu Nigam considers his popular hit "Yeh dil deewana" in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Pardes" as the song that changed the course of his career.

Sonu feels before that song released, filmmakers and fans alike would dismiss his talent, saying he was just another Mohammad Rafi clone. "Yeh Dil Deewana", filmed on SRK in the 1997 Subhash Ghai film, changed all that, according to the singer.

"No one discovered my originality till they heard 'Yeh dil deewana'. I sang this song exactly how the director envisaged it, and both the song and film became superhit, and I became the Sonu Nigam," he added.

Sonu recently paid a visit to Ghai's Whistling Woods film school, where he went down memory lane and recalled about his experience of singing "Yeh dil deewana" for Shah Rukh in the film.

The singer is currently busy performing at live concerts and working on non-film songs.