The great Indian Singer, Abhijeet Bhattacharya was born in a Bengali family in Kanpur, the youngest of four siblings, Abhijeet left home for Mumbai in 1981 to perceive his Chartered Accountant (CA) degree. Due to his fascination for singing and music, he decided to pursue a career in playback singing and quit Chartered Accountancy. Despite being gifted with a melodious voice, he struggled for a long time. After his long struggle in Mumbai, He received a call from Rahul Dev Burman to sing for veteran actor Dev Anand‘s son’s debut film ‘Anand Aur Anand’. In this Movie, Abhijeet got the opportunity to sing a song along with his music idol Kishor Kumar Ganguly.
In 1990s, Abhijeet established himself as a notable playback singer. His early notable hits were the songs from Hindi feature films ‘Baaghi, composed by Anand-Milind – Ek chanchal shokh hasina, Chandni raat hai and Har kasam se badi hai.’ In 1994, when Abhijeet scored hits in movies like Yeh Dillagi, Anjaam, Raja Babu and Main Khiladi Tu Anari, there was no looking back for him since then. He was seen as a hit machine, along with his competitors Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan he was among the top three playback singers of the 90s, and finally won the Filmfare Best Playback singer award for ‘Yes Boss’ in 1997. He went on to deliver hit numbers in the movies Baadshah, Yes Boss, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Josh, Dhadkan, Chalte Chalte, Main Hoon Naa. Abhijeet has given his voice for many actors that include Shahrukh Khan, Sunil Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan.
In an exclusive interview with India Unbound, Abhijeet spoke about his journey in Bollywood, reality in reality shows, and various current affairs in India.
Can you please re-construct your journey so far, for our readers?
Many people say that they want to achieve this and that thing, but very few people reach there. Even a man of 80-year-old says that he is still learning, and wants to do something; I don’t believe such kind of hypocrisy. I have achieved what I have dreamed of in my childhood at Kanpur. Though it took very long, it took struggle of 10 to 12 years. I was struggling for food, shelter, work and money and when I got all this my journey stopped. I achieved whatever I had decided. Such as, I decided not to sing for this superstar so I did it and it didn’t affect my career. Whatever may be my future in film industry but I have created Abhijeet Bhattacharya as a brand in Indian Film Industry. This will be remembered for many years.
Tell us about your music albums.
I did my albums Aashiqui and Tere Bina in which I had kept a condition that I don’t want any star actor in the videos of my music album. I wanted new comers because I wanted my album to become a star. T-series Company objected my decision by saying that Rani Mukherjee or Bipasha Basu should star in my album, but I stood by my decision. I selected Divya Khosla and she was totally rejected by Bhushan Kumar (Owner of T-series), but still we shot the album with her and rest is history. My album became super hit and Divya Khosla now owns T-series (She is Wife of Bhushan Kumar). So I want to mark that my songs don’t need stars in fact stars need my songs.
What do you think about today’s Bollywood music?
Bollywood has changed and music is outdated. Now days no one creates music, no one plays instruments, no one sings songs. Everything is done on software; tones are being downloaded from internet, singers don’t have their original voice in final output. I think I am outdated or too big to discuss about this kind of music system.
What is your take on piracy?
Many celebrities oppose the piracy but I am the only one who thinks it’s good. Today music companies are not really into music. Labels earn money from licensing and moreover, from our songs. Physical sales are nil and content is being consumed digitally. No one buys music, everyone downloads music for free, and it is very good if people indulge in piracy. Labels companies do not give us royalties, so why bother. Why would I talk against piracy?
Who among the new upcoming talents/singers you are looking forward to working with?
The new generation is good, but the new composers think they can sing all their songs well with the help of auto tuners. Thus their longevity has reduced, and composers have stopped composing everlasting songs. Ten to fifteen years ago, songs were sung by evergreen artistes. Songs today however, lack that finishing. They are released before the films and fade away as soon as the film goes out of cinemas. They need to be told that they are ‘ache be sure singers’ (good singers with bad rhythm). Also, the pronunciations are bad. This generation does not have musical stars like Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar. Shahrukh Khan and I were musical stars. Maybe these composers are successful, but no one knows them.
What do you think about award system in India?
If one gets an award, they claim that they are very much deserving but when they didn’t get any, the same people start mocking the award system. We can’t just give best singer award because the song is popular. For example, in his entire career of A. R. Rahman, the worst song he composed was Jai Ho which became a worldwide hit. And if such songs are getting awards then it is an insult of award system. When I got the award that well deserved because all other nominees were from big movies like, Pardes, Border, Dil toh pagal hai and in between I swept the award for Yes Boss. My album Tere Bina also got MTV award.
Today there are many awards, the condition is that they are given only if the recipient star is available for show or agrees to perform in the show. It is also given even if they do not have any film that particular year.
What were your feelings when last year your statement about Salman Khan’s hit and run case created a lot of controversy, and many celebrities expressed their displeasure?
Neither I was defending Salman nor I am his big fan. I have rendered my voice to mere 2-3 songs for him. But that was a period where I was trying to say that people should not sleep on roads. But everyone misinterpreted me. Few years ago there was an accident on marine drive, the person was bleeding on road and no one came forward to take him to hospital, I was there and I co-ordinated with people around and took that person to Bombay Hospital. I was appreciated by many for my work then. I get more attached to such incidents that happen on the roads. But still there was a lot of controversy on that statement but I cleared myself in the media that my twitter account is not verified, the person who wrote this wasn’t me.
Do you think reality shows are good platform for upcoming singers?
In 1994 there was a show called Antakshari. Sonu Nigam, Sadhana Sargam, Udit Narayan, Me and others participated in it. Though we can sing well but don’t know about the history of music to that extent as of a researcher of music. In that segment Sonu got much ahead of us. That time it was decided to launch a new show called Sa Re Ga Ma Pa with Sonu Nigam. From 1994 till date we have seen many new singers in it. It is like a competition where someone comes first and gets noticed all over. But on that base he cannot become a singer in industry. Like when we chose subject like Political Science and when we top it we can’t become politicians or ministers. I genuinely judge performer and I was appreciated for that. Today many shows are there on similar themes on different channels and they are in race of TRP. Now all you need to do is sit on a chair and just say good things about the singers, and you are paid to do that. The worst part is when they say the singer’s version of a song is better than the original. It is odd to see lyricists and choreographers judging singing reality shows. That is why I completely refused to judge reality shows. I have seen many times that some judges even don’t listen to songs, they keep themselves busy with their phones.
Any plans to judge reality shows?
Only if it is a real show and there should not be any participant from our enemy country. Recently I was a judge at Maldivian Idol. I am doing many International reality shows now.
How important is the digital space for an upcoming artiste?
The space as a concept is open to everyone who thinks he or she is an artiste. It is not a stage where only the best artistes are given a platform. I also belonged to the same space, but the concept could not work. I think I am too big for a space like this. The digital space is good for someone who is a zero, but it is not necessary that a zero becomes a hero, unless the artistes put in cheap lyrics with bad words. Artistes who wish to become great will have to work hard without a platform.
Share some of your memorable moment while doing shows around the world?
I have done number of shows so everything is memorable. I can’t choose one of them. You will be surprised when young boys and girls respond to our songs, gather around us, that’s because they enjoy todays music but don’t listen to it. Today’s music is only for legs and our music is like ‘close the eyes and listen the song’. Our songs gave us place in people’s heart, and that’s the reason why people love us even today. I thank to all the music directors who gave me such songs. So I think our past has to be our future.
What is your view on religious situations in India?
I am a true Hindu who respects Muslims. Don’t hate Muslims instead hate those Hindus who are not true Hindus, but don’t start fight with other religions on any other issue. Currently we have noticed the news of Trupti Desai, who is behaving against our religion. There are some rules and traditions of each religion that was established thousands of years ago for some good reasons and this lady is suddenly trying to break them. And now she is trying to break rules of other religions also. Who gave her right to interfere in other religions? If she truly cares for gender equality, tell her to enter in gutter and clean it, why should men always have to do it? Because we respect women and it’s our tradition from years. We the Hindus are coward who allow such people to interfere in religious matters. I think first of all we have to check her gender if she is a women or not.
Any plans to enter into politics?
I got many offers but I want to live like this. I am doing my work as a true Indian in whatever way possible. I am not supporter of any party, in my opinion good work for society is calculated. But like RSS and there Hindutva for nation. Give reservation to those who don’t have money, don’t give reservation on caste basis. I am against reservation.
How do you spend your leisure time?
I used to play and watch cricket but lost interest in it after fixings and politics in game increased by people like Greg Chappell and other. My children watch soccer so I enjoy it with them. I have my farm house in Pune, located in the center of city. I have a small lake there, different kind of trees; we have also planted many vegetables. It feels good to see my farm fulfilled with natural things.
What message you would like to spread through India Unbound to our youth?
Our patriotism is in danger; our religions are in danger due to some politically motivated people. Some politicians do these things for their own benefits. So I want our youths to join politics and give a proper answer to those corrupt minded people.