I'd rather be busy working than trying to find out what other singers are doing. Accumulation of those feelings built up within me and I had to keep myself away from all the gossip. I have seen my father's struggles and his standard of living. How were you unaffected by the comparisons and competition? This is primarily because of my upbringing. You have never been bothered by competition, despite being constantly pitted against Udit Narayan and Abhijeet during the 90s and early 2000s. It was because of Amit ji that I got to enter the industry even though the film didn't do well, the word was out in the industry that a new boy did playback for Amitabh Bachchan and that benefited me a lot. He indeed speaks good Bengali himself as his wife, Jaya ji is also Bengali, so it's a given he'd be well versed with the language. When I went to the recording booth later, I saw Amit ji was sitting there and he complimented me in Bengali. The minute I heard that, I got chills running down my spine. That's when they told me that I was singing for Mr Bachchan. In the middle of my recording, Kalyanji-Anandji came and told me to sing forcefully with an open voice, adding power in my voice. But, even when I was recording the song, I had no clue I was doing playback for Amitabh Bachchan. He told Kalyanji-Anandji to make me sing all the songs and because of his consent, I was asked to sing for Jaadugar. Amitabh ji heard the song over there and he agreed to give me the chance. He had to take a call seeing my potential as a singer and if I could do playback for him. He was shooting in the US and Kalyanji-Anandji sent a cassette of my first recorded song through Sanjay Dutt to him to hear my voice. What exactly had gone down on that day? I salute Amit ji. When you were told to give playback for Amitabh Bachchan for the very first time, back in Jaadugar (1989), you were clueless that you were recording a song for him. Given our voices were similar, I got this as an advantage to catch onto his minute details which I incorporated in my singing and that became a success with Aashiqui and my identity was thereafter made. When I got a chance with Aashiqui, I showcased what could happen when both these voices mixed to create that punch. In my case, the voice quality was always similar so I never really had to forcefully replicate Kishore Da's voice. This voice quality I have is surely God gifted, however I feel if a new singer follows his idol, it definitely leaves an impact that people often contemplate whether one is on purpose imitating his idol. When I used to sing his songs, there would be some kind of resemblance, so much so that my fans would often lay challenges whether it was my voice or his. I used to try to find a lot in his songs - how he used to make variations and voice modulations and I picked from those aspects to explain the craft to myself. Tell us more about that era? When a singer enters the industry, they usually follow some other big singer, it was the same with me too. However, there was a void after Kishore Kumar's demise and you managed to fill that, eventually making your own mark. When you set foot in the Hindi Film industry, there were already quite a few established singers in the music industry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |