BHARATI PAWASKAR
People know him more for his voice, than for his face as there are many famous celebrity faces behind his versatile voice which, he believes, is his true identity. In his musical career that began at the age of eight, and took off at 20, this legendary singer from Punjab has delivered numerous songs that have enthralled thousands of music lovers across the globe. Meet singer, composer, actor and lyricist Sukhwinder Singh who has many awards to his credit “ from the Best Male Playback Singer award for ‘Chaiyya, Chaiyya’ from ‘Dil Se’ in 1999, ‘Jai Ho’ from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which won Academy Award for Best Original Song Written for a Motion Picture, Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ and film ‘Haider’ that fetched him Silver Lotus National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.
Sukhwinder has been the popular singing voice of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in six songs including ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ , ‘Dard-E-Disco’ f, ‘Chak De India’ , ‘Haule Haule’ from and ‘Marjaani’ all went on to become hits. Not limiting himself to be the voice behind any one face, Sukhwinder has provided playback for many Bollywood heroes including Salman Khan, Arjun Rampal, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tusshar Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi,Sanjay Dutt, Ranbir Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, Shabbir Ahluwalia and Rohit Roy.
The two years - 2016 to 2018 were remarkable in his musical journey as during this span many blockbusters such as Sui Dhaaga, Thugs of Hindostan, Zero, Pataakha, Sanju, Raid, Sachin: A Billion Dreams, Tiger Zinda Hai, Rangoon, etc hit the screens. In 2018, his song from Zero - ‘Issaqbaazi’ has gone viral on social media, as has his songs in Ashwini Chaudhary’s next film ‘Cheat India’. The film revolves around education and employment mafia in India. Then there’s ‘72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died “ a film based on the life of Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat who fought in 1962 Indo-China war. Jaswant Sing Rawat was the man who saved Arunachal Pradesh, but was later captured and hanged by the Chinese army.
“It’s a beautiful story,” exclaims Sukhwinder who has also lent his voice for songs in Anil Kapoor’s upcoming film ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga’ which is a family function celebration. “In total, four of my films are getting released in January 2019. I am also associated with Salman Khan’s ‘Bharat’. I am blessed to sing two-three songs in this film and received a lot of appreciation for my work,” he states.
During the candid conversation, Sukhwinder avers that the culture of remix songs which has been mushrooming is very painful. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of true music lovers, says the singer. Additionally, there is a trend of taking the hook line of any popular song of yesteryear adding some not very deep lyrics and upbeat music to it, and claiming credit for creating a new song. “Some people take the original song as it is, add loud upbeat music to it and then claim that it’s their own creation. This must stop,” warns the veteran singer who has had hundreds of scores to his credit in a17-year-long musical career.
“There are at least 50,000 people in Mumbai who are into remixing old songs and recreating new albums. This is a serious criminal offense, because the name of the original music director is nowhere mentioned on their remix albums,” alleges Sukhwinder. “The ideal thing to do is to give due credit to the original music director and clearly mention his/her name on the new, remix creation. There can be two names, one of the original music director and the other of the person who has done this remix or recreation of the old track. It is totally unfair and morally incorrect to mention only the name of the person who has recreated the remix album.”
Sukhwinder adds that he is not saying this out of frustration. “I have been singing for everyone and everywhere. If artists like me don’t speak out, who will? I can give proof of cases where such violation of copyrights is being done openly. Shouldn’t we give credit to the original song composer and lyricist or singers? Isn’t it our moral responsibility to mention their names if and when we remix? The original writers, composers would be more than happy to see their names on the remix. That’s the decent way of copying or imitating, if at all one has to do that,” Sukhwinder asserts.
Further on, he also expresses concern about the evolution of lyrics in Bollywood songs.
“Good songs will always create history and dwell forever in the hearts of music lovers. But it’s a shame to witness the recent trend of adding bad words to songs. It’s in bad taste and should not be tolerated at all. Isn’t it shameful to sing and listen to those vulgar, double meaning songs? And so are the vulgar actions during dance sequences which seem to be a common feature nowadays. Why can’t the Censor Board look into this and put a ban on the use of bad words in such obscene songs? There’s a rule in place for the scripts. Similarly, the wordings in the songs should also be censored. What are we offering to our next generation? Isn’t all this done to get cheap publicity? Are we, artists, here to promote unhealthy trends?” asks Sukhwinder.
“A true artist would never encourage anything that’s in bad taste. Let’s give songs that remain in the hearts of people for years to come.” He concludes.
