Arijit Singh-Salman Khan fiasco says a lot about the fate of singers today

There was a time when the bygone Bollywood only welcomed actors with melodious voices so that they could sing their own songs in their movies. The 30s and 40s had actor-singers like KL Sehgal, who was considered as the first superstar of the country with his impeccable voice and acting prowess, alike.

This however ended too soon and Bollywood welcomed playback singers in the form of Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and many more, who became the voice of actors in movies. In fact a singer was the one who was responsible for deciding the fate of an actor in a huge way. There were a set of singers allotted to sing for every actor. While Mukesh was the voice of Raj Kapoor, Rafi gave his voice for Dilip Kumar.

A revolution in the Hindi music scenario happened when singers like Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, etc. made their way in the industry. Each of these singers were a clone of some yesteryear singer. While Sonu Nigam was known to be hugely inspired by Rafi, Kumar Sanu often copied Kishore Kumar’s singing style.

Even then, these singers had a position for themselves in the industry. They used to charge a bulk and makers waited for them to sing in their movies for weeks and even months to come.

Then came the era when the demand for singers dropped gradually. Music directors tilted their interest in working with the new bunch of singers culled from various talent and reality shows. One of the reasons behind it was the fact that these youngsters were so much in awe of fame, that they charged a minimum amount for their singing stint. This is the reason that the legendary singers are very hardly to be heard in movies today, as they still charge for their singing. These singers depend on stage shows and concerts for their livelihood.

Today has come the time when if a movie has five songs, each song is sung by 20-30 singers and after detailed revision, one of the versions is selected to go in the movie. Not just this, each movie has 10 different music directors, who prefer different singers.

This brings us to the recent unfortunate bicker between Arijit Singh and Salman Khan. Arijit recently took to his Facebook account to apologize to Salman and beg him to keep his song in the star’s upcoming movie ‘Sultan’.

For the uninitiated, in 2014, when Salman Khan and Riteish Deshmukh invited Arijit Singh on stage to offer him an award for ‘Tum Hi Ho’ at an award function. Arijit took his time to come on stage and when asked what cased the delay, he joking said, “Aap logon ne toh sula diya… (you guys put me to sleep)”. And if you know Salman, this was not the wisest reply. Salman retorted saying, “Aur isme humara koi dosh nahi hai, agar aise hi gaane bajte rahenge… (not our fault that the songs are so boring).”

This apparently made Salam furious and he has been holding the grudge since then, not allowing Arijit to sing in his movies. The singer had recorded a song for Salman’s upcoming movie ‘Sultan,’ which too has apparently not been taken in the movie. It is said that Arijit will be soon visiting Salman’s house clear the whole matter.

This makes us question the position of singers in the industry today. Arijit, who is considered at the top of the game today as compared to an array of playback singers, too had to come out in public and apologize to a star. Actors are not only superior to singers today, but, now has come an era, where stars decide the fate of the singers. Arijit, too, in the fear of getting his career wrecked had to take such a drastic step.

We wonder if this will ever change and playback singers will finally attain a respected position for themselves in Bollywood?