Pakistani singer
Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, who has delivered melodies like Mora Saiyaan, Phir Le
Aya Dil and Allah Wariyan, will soon be back in Bollywood. In an exclusive
interview with SpotboyE.com, he spoke about the Actors vs Singers controversy ,
mediocrity in Bollywood music and his future projects.
Excerpts:
Your last song in
Bollwyood was for Tevar in 2015. Are you not getting more Bollywood offers?
Why?
My song in Tevar
was not the last one. If I remember correctly I released a song called Rabba
Mileya post that. It’s not that I am not getting Bollywood offers. I am
currently working on a strong and meaningful project with Mahesh Bhatt.
Hopefully, I will be singing for one of his plays. It revolves around bringing
peace between both the countries and resolve differences. Other than that, we
are working on a few offers.
You have a huge
fan base in India. Would you consider applying for Indian citizenship like
Adnan Sami?
(Laughs) We
respect fans for all the love, but migrating to a different country is
difficult. I will stay here, keep serving music and catering to my fan base.
Gone are the days
when we remembered the lyrics of a song. Today, we remember only hook lines.
Why?
I guess, people
are becoming impatient. Pehle test matches hua karte the, then came one-dayers
followed by T-20 matches. Now, I hear cricket is moving to 10-over matches
world over. The same thing is happening in music. People don’t want to
concentrate on the full song, they want a funny, slightly seductive hook
line. That works for them, the song becomes a hit. It is not one man’s
fault, if it is a fault at all. The music producer, the lyricist and the film
producer are all responsible for it.
A lot of actors
including Alia Bhatt and Sonakshi Sinha have turned singers. What do you think
of this trend?
I think it is a
good trend. If they can sing, they should sing. I have heard Alia Bhatt, I have
not heard Sonakshi. And Alia did a good job and she did full justice to the
song. I have seen a lot of cricketers turning to acting, a lot of singers
appearing in films. So, why can’t actors sing in films.
Bollywood films
used to have 7-8 songs, now the number has been reduced to 3 or 4. Why has this
happened?
I guess, the
producers don’t thinks that they will get back the money they spend on an
album.There is illegal downloading and illegal sharing and that has ruined the
business. Nobody is crazy to spend tons of money on something, when you know
you can’t earn back that money. I have seen another trend. Shankar Ehsaan
Loy, Salim Suleimaan or Sajid Wajid or Pritam, they used to do the entire
album. But now the producers have one song from this composer, one song from
that singer and another song from a third composer. They put it in the film,
wherever needed.
Shreya Ghoshal
once said that mediocrity has crept into Bollywood. Do you agree?
I agree with her.
But if we go back, mediocrity has been there, right from the word Go. We have
always had three different levels of productions, very low, cheap, then
mediocre and then high-end. It has been there from the beginning.
The last time we heard a complete album was Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. What could be the reason for the lack of full albums in Bollywood?
I think the trend
has changed. Now they don’t give the entire film to one music producer.
They choose songs from different producers and that is why it does not come out
as an album, they come out as singles. Whatever song is popular, they sell it
and then get another song from the same artiste for the next film. That’s the
reason ki ab albums nahin aate.
What projects are
you working on?
There are a lot
of things in the pipeline. I am working on singles, there are videos and other
than that there are a few projects that I am working on. I am really looking
forward to those projects but it’s a little too early to mention them. They are
still ideas and if they are leaked, they will lose their value.
Image Source: instagram/aliabhatt/shafqatamanataliofficial & expresstribune
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