OnTheBeatWith | Sukhwinder Singh: For me, my work, my music, is everything

The year: 2008; the place: Sukhwinder Singh’s studio in Mumbai; the event: one that was responsible for rewriting the history of Hindi film music for all time.  

Subhash Ghai and AR Rahman were working on the songs for the Salman Khan starrer Yuvvraaj. Rahman had presented the first draft of one of his songs but the producer-director wasn’t happy. He rejected the track saying it did not fit his protagonist’s character at all. And after the initial banter about the rejected song was over, Subhash Ghai and Rahman left the studio in their respective cars.  

It was just Sukhwinder Singh and the renowned lyricist Gulzar Sahab, who were left in the studio along with the musicians and recordists. There was a general aura of dejection around everyone, because of the earlier incident.  

Sukhwinder went up to Gulzar sahab and said, “In my entire career and my whole life, I have never heard lyrics like this - Aaja zari wale neele aasman ke tale’. I really want to record this song today.” While he was a tad hesitant at first, he gave in to Sukhwinder’s keen enthusiasm.  

The singer then asked his recordist to put up three microphones and he recorded the entire song, jumping between the mics with passion, as he powerfully rendered the song Jai Ho. Once done, he burned two CDs - one for Gulzar Sahab and the other he sent over to Rahman.  

A week after that day, Sukhwinder received a call from Rahman, “Hello Hollywood Singer! Your song has been selected for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire."  

And that is one of the small stories behind the song Jai Ho, which went on to win the Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards and later the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture.

Sukhwinder Singh has many such interesting stories tucked away in the three decades of his career as a popular Bollywood singer.  

Loved and applauded for songs like Mahiya from Dus, Banthan from Kurukshetra, Mitwa from Lagaan, Kaavaan Kaavaan from Monsoon Wedding, Maahi Ve from Kaante,  Layi Ve Na Gaye from Chalte Chalte, Woh Kisna Hai from Kisna, and Beedi from Omkara, Sukhwinder Singh has remained ageless over the years. He sang Mithoon’s compositions for Ranbir Kapoor in the recently released Shamshera.  

Over the years, Sukhwinder has sung many songs for Shah Rukh Khan, all certified chartbusters, right from Chaiyya Chaiyya (Dil Se…),  Dard-E-Disco (Om Shanti Om), Chak De India (Chak De! India), Haule Haule (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi),  Marjaani (Billu), Satakali (Happy New Year), to Udi Udi Jaye (Raees).  

“Shah Rukh Khan is not someone who is present at song recordings, actually no actor ever is. But when I was recording Layi vi na gayi’ from his film Chalte Chalte, it was in front of Shah Rukh Khan Sahab. He was there through the whole recording and people at the studio said he was feeling very sad after listening to the track. I just couldn’t see him like that,” says Sukhwinder whose biggest hit Chaiya Chaiya was a SRK song.  “I came out of the recording studio and I saw that he was sitting near the console on a sofa. I went there and I sang so many happy songs, just to cheer him up. He started laughing and he actually enjoyed it. He really loves me and I love him,” he says simply.  

Sukhwinder is known for his powerful voice and his astounding range as a singer. His work in the item number Anarkali Disco Chali (Housefull 2) has a story behind it too.  

“Kafi difficult scale tha and it also has a difficult dhun. The makers did not tell me that they had tried many singers for the same song. They’d just said that I had a very tough job to do singing this song. I found it to be an entertaining dance track and I finished recording the song in less than five minutes. The music directors were very happy.”

Sukhwinder Singh’s special connect with music directors  like AR Rahman, Vishal Bharadwaj, Salim-Sulaiman, Vishal-Shekhar, Pritam, has been strong and he has worked with each on multiple hits. Reminiscing about his long-time association with Vishal Bharadwaj, he tells us, “Beedi from Omkara was the first song I sang for Vishal. He told me that there was a female song sung by Sunidhi Chauhan where there was just one line that I had to sing and asked me if I was okay with it and would accept singing just a single line? And I said why not? In any song I do not count the number of lines I sing. So I went ahead and I heard the entire version sung by Sunidhi Chauhan while he gave me a narration of the character I was to sing for - Saif Ali Khan. Vishal said you have to sing that one line angrily to be in character. So I sang it. Then he asked me to sing two more lines. And then he offered me a biscuit and said, ‘Yeh biscuit pura khana aadha nahi’. I did not understand what he meant and he explained that they wanted me to sing the entire song and that is how Beedi became a duet.”

Now life has come full circle for Vishal-Sukhwinder, as very soon he will be singing in Vishal’s son Aasmaan Bhardwaj’s film Kuttey, starring Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Arjun Kapoor, Radhika Madan. “When Aasmaan began working on Kuttey, Vishal had asked him if he had thought of a voice for his film and apparently Aasmaan had told his father that it had to be Sukhwinder Singh. Aasmaan is a young kid and is extremely talented and has a tremendous sense of music. I feel that working with young talents like Aasmaan, composers like Mithoon, Aman Pant  (I worked with him on an ad film recently), I feel that I am greatly benefitted because I get to upgrade myself. I love to adopt changes, love to keep learning. They give me the gift of new changes and I give them good performances.”

Sukhwinder Singh’s joie de vivre is contagious and he is always all about fun, laughter, lighthearted jokes, humility and simplicity. “I do not have any dark stories. I do not have any negative thoughts, I have never said anything or tried anything just to create breaking news. Even today when I meet musical legends or great human beings, I touch my forehead to their feet. I try to learn from them. I always enjoy music, I first understand the emotion of the words and then I perform from that emotion. I do not care much about competition and I think of creativity more than anything else. For me, my work, my music  is everything. I avoid singing songs that have stupid, ridiculous words or bad words that are abusive or defamatory. And by the grace of God, I have never been offered to sing such songs. I don’t look at the budget of a film or whether the composer is a very known one, even if I have a new composer and a low-budget film, I still say yes if the content is good. I do strict riyaz for one hour every day and the rest of the 23 hours I think about music and only music.”

Debarati S Sen is a consultant journalist and writer who writes on music, culture, theatre, films, OTT and more. Instagram: @DebaratiSSen

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