How the Arijit Singh factor affected KK’s career?

The fabulously crest-chorded KK died young. During the last five years of his life, his voice had become progressively rare in Hindi cinema. His career in Hindi films had been severely curtailed by the arrival of Arijit Singh who was to KK’s career what Kishore Kumar was to the great Mohammad Rafi when Kishore zoomed into the charts with Sachin Dev Burman ’s Mere sapnon ki rani and Roop tera mastana in Aradhana. Both were ghost-composed by Sachin’s son Rahul. Rafi didn’t know what hit him. Only a year before in Nasir Hussain’s Pyar Ka Mausam, Rafi sang the chartbuster Tum bin jaaon kahan for the hero Shashi Kapoor while Kishore’s voice was used in another version of the same song for Bharat Bhushan who played the hero’s father. After Arijit came into the playback zone, KK’s career began to downslide in Hindi. When Sachin Dev Burman switched loyalties from Geeta Dutt to Lata Mangeshkar , Geeta would apparently call up Burman to ask what wrong she had done to be so unceremoniously ousted. When composers like Pritam did a volte-face on KK he had nothing to say. As the KK deserters made a beeline for Arijit, KK with a far more enviable singing range, found his career in Hindi cinema suffering a setback. KK was too self-made and too self-respecting to protest about being sidelined. He never craved for a huge quantity of songs. In fact, he was very particular about what he sang. After his career-making song Tadap tadap ke in Hum…Dil De Chuke Sanam when Sanjay Leela Bhansali offered KK a song in Guzaarish, KK did not grab it greedily. He had some reservations about the composition and he fearlessly shared them with Bhansali. Selective and very particular about what he sang, KK was as godfearing kind gentle and easy to get along with as Mohammad Rafi. And he had a similar staggering range. These qualities, Arjit lacks. Over the years he has acquired the reputation of being extremely moody, quite like his idol Kishore Kumar. Arijit is known to delay recording till the last minute. For a song in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi , Arijit did not deliver the recording for six months. Bhansali finally did not shoot the song and added it to the end titles. For a song in Karan Johar ’s Brahmastra Arijit apparently kept the producer waiting for months. A leading filmmaker tells me, “There was a time when sets were erected and demolished because Lataji was not available. Waiting for her made sense. Arijit has acquired a reputation for procrastination. It is damaging his career irreparably.” What about the damage caused to KK’s career when suddenly his collaborative composers who swore by his voice deserted him for Arijit? KK quietly focused his singing attention on the South. For him, the rat race was never a place to rest his case. He always looked beyond the competition. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram