Pokharel already felt like he wasn’t doing anything in life. But while working in Radio Sagarmatha, he used to go to music studios and still practised in the evenings. Radio Sagarmatha also taught Pokharel how to build connections with singers, musicians and other people. The connection was slowly building a path for his smooth musical journey. It was a learning curve for him.

Pokharel wrote his first song “Mero Sansaar” and it was his first song that recorded solo. His first song became a super hit. The song also introduced auto-tune for the first time in Nepali music. But talking about his speciality, Sugam mostly wrote tragic songs.

Going abroad to earn more in life was Pokharel’s  plan, but his happiness lied in his music. The first song already gave him a bigger hope in music and then, he decided to completely focus on it. He sacrificed his abroad plans and became more dedicated to music. The release of his first song gave him his breakthrough in his career.

He wanted to represent himself as 1MB, which meant 1 Man Band. After his first single, he then recorded “Pheri tyo din”, which was equally as successful as his first one. After the hit of those two songs, he decided it’s time to release an album. He was scrutinized because of the autotune feature, raising doubts among many that he actually does not possess any vocal talents. Despite the criticisms he got that his songs became popular only because of new effects, he kept going. He released his first album which was called “Shunya”.

Pokharel did not have much money for recordings, but he earned a few from his job at Radio Sagarmatha. He had to do a few voiceovers there, and also sing on ad jingles. Those extra tasks were giving him a bit of extra money which he used for album recording. He was so broke that he even sold two of his wife’s gold bangles for his album. His wife was very supportive and did not hesitate to help.

After releasing his first album, he became a hit singer. The expectations from audiences grew and pressure started building up. There were companies that were forcing him to release albums every year because of his talent. But Pokharel did not want to follow the general rule and wanted quality in his work rather than just releasing contents.

He still had his Radio Sagarmatha job and later became the chief librarian there. The responsibilities got even heavier after that. But even though he got promoted, he left his job for music.

From then, he has continued his journey in music only. He did not stop and it has already been two decades of Sugam being an undefeatable singer. He repaid his debt that he owned his wife and had a pretty successful career.