Whatever Sonu said is the truth: Salim
Singer Sonu Nigam recently put out a vlog where he was seen talking about favouritism in the music fraternity and also called out the “music mafias”. Now, Salim Merchant from the composer duo Salim-Sulaiman, has come out saying that he agrees with what Nigam says.
“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,” he says.
Throwing more light on the topic, he shares, “There are a lot of composers like me, who don’t want to do just one song in a film. But there are others who are comfortable with the record label’s terms and conditions. Whatever Sonu has said is the truth. There are singers who get called and get dumped later on. There are so many directors who want to work with us, but when it reaches the record labels, they have their own conditions.”
Ask him if they’ve ever been asked to change any singer, and he says, “No, we haven’t. However, we’ve got feedbacks from directors and producers to try another singer. And we tried, but it has been done respectfully. These decisions have been taken mutually. For instance, for Ainvayi Ainvayi (Band Baaja Baaraat; 2010), we had recorded with Master Saleem, who has a folk touch in his voice. And Aditya Chopra wanted a lighter voice for Ranveer Singh, so we tried my voice. But this decision was mutual. Yet, we kept Master Saleem’s name in the credits.”
He points out that the creative process getting hampered is just one level, but there is more to it. Sharing a personal experience, he says, “Sulaiman and I had worked on a project with a new director. The music turned out to be so good that it helped them get a really big actor on board. Then the director took it to a big production house/record company, and the label 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.”