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Sonu Nigam’s controversial statements about favouritism in the music industry and the presence of ‘music mafias’ have irked a lot of people. Soon after the singer named and shamed T-Series head Bhushan Kumar, his wife Divya Khosla Kumar released a video sharing their part of the story. She also challenged Sonu’s claims and called for a ‘war’.
But now, music composer Salim Merchant said that Sonu has not said anything wrong.
Hindustan Times quoted him saying, “It is not just the singers, the composers are also going through a tough time. The record labels he is talking about has certain music directors and singers they work with. There are certain artistes they have signed.”
“There is definitely that favouritism for certain artistes and composers, which these labels work with.”
Salim of the popular composer duo Salim-Sulaiman further added, “There are lot of composers like me, who don’t want to do just one song in the film. But there are others who are comfortable with the record labels terms and conditions and are okay to compose just one song in the film.”
“Sonu Nigam has not said anything wrong. Whatever he has said is the truth. There are singers who get called and they get dumped later on.”
“There are so many directors who want to work with composers like ourselves, but when it reaches the record labels, they have their own conditions and they feel they cannot work with us,” he explains.
On being questioned if they have ever been asked to change any singer, he says, “No we haven’t been asked to. However, we have got feedbacks from directors and producers to try another singer. And indulged in trying but it has been very peaceful and was done very respectfully. These decisions have been taken mutually.”
Sharing one of the instances, he said, “For Ainvayi Ainvayi Lut Gaya (Band Baaja Baarat; 2010), we had recorded with Master Salim, who has a folk touch in his voice. And Aditya Chopra wanted a lighter voice for Ranveer Singh. And we tried another singer that was me. But this decision was mutual. Yet we kept Master Salim’s credit in the end credits,” he added.
Sonu in his videos has said that such things hamper the creativity of an artist, speaking of which Salim says that it can “really break you.” He further adds that people also take out their personal vendetta against each other. Sharing about his personal experience, he says, “Sulaiman and I had worked on a project with a new director. The music turned out so good that it helped them get a really big actor on board. Then they took it to a big production house/record company, and they said, ‘we love the film, but please change the composers.’
“They have some personal vendetta against us, I don’t know why. It is about time that people find about it.”
Salim’s claims made me realise that because of this vicious practice in the industry, we might be losing out on several talented artists. Well, I think it’s time people get into the depth of this malaise and hold the perpetrators responsible for their actions.
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