Sonu on songs & SRK - CNNIBN interview

Please watch & listen Sonu's interview with Rajeev masand on CNN IBN on the programme To catch a star telecast on 27th Jan 2008.

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Transcript of the above interview,

To Catch A Star: Sonu Nigam on songs and SRK

Rajeev Masand / CNN-IBN

Published on Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 04:07, Updated at Sun, Jan 27, 2008 in Entertainment section

CNN-IBN's special show To Catch a Star featured one of the most talented and versatile singers of the day – Sonu Nigam.

Appropriately apostrophised as 'India's Voice of Love' on the show, Sonu's voice has been used often by Shah Rukh Khan to woo his heroines. Alternately, the same voice has wrenched tears from the eyes of millions.

Rajeev Masand had a lively chat – interspersed with songs – with Sonu Nigam about singing, rivalries, mimicry, and much more.

Rajeev Masand: Sonu, the song these days everyone is talking about is your song from Jodhaa-Akbar. It's a song with A R Rahman and your collaboration with Rahman has always been interesting – you guys have done some interesting work together. You sang for him in Dil Se, you sang for him in Saathiya, you sang for him again in Legend of Bhagat Singh. Is he really a guy who brings out the best in you?

Sonu Nigam: I think he's been known to be very choosy and he chooses good. So, I would say that both of us have had a good tuning. We've worked less with each other. We've not worked too much. In fact, in last five years – after Saathiya - I've hardly worked with him. I remember – I can count on my fingers – I must have sung two songs for him.

Rajeev Masand: Why do you think that is?

Sonu Nigam: He's also doing less work, I've also stopped doing film songs. I just want to be very selective right now because it's very difficult to be a singer in India and not be that so-called 'playback singer'.

Rajeev Masand: That's true.

Sonu Nigam: Everybody just wants to become a playback singer, not understanding the disadvantages of it. You are never able to carve your own niche, you are never able to get your own individuality out. So I wanted to check that in me. I wanted to become a singer, not only a playback singer. And so I've had to cut out many of my playback assignments and by the grace of God it has helped me tremendously.

Rajeev Masand: Okay, now since we were talking about your collaborations with A R Rahman, let's set the mood for the show. Also, it is the Republic Day weekend, let's ask you to give a few lines from a song you sang for Rahman from the film .The Legend of Bhagat Singh. I think you know which song I'm talking about.

Sonu Nigam: Yeah, yeah. Sings 'Rang de basanti chola'.

Rajeev Masand: Sonu, it's been less than a year, you have a little baby boy in the house, your son Nevaan. Tell me, does he like to listen to you? Do you sing to put him to sleep, do you sing when he's crying?

Sonu Nigam: First of all, he cries very less. He's like his father. The mother doesn't cry, either. We both are very positive so he's a very good boy, a smiling baby, a happy child. And once in a while, when he's very hungry or very sleepy, he wants to just crib, I would (sings an aalaap), he would just look at me like this (eyes open wide). So, he's not scared, but when I sing something, when something is playing in the background, he is very alert. He listens to it with a lot of concentration, which is good. He's the only child you can take to a theatre and he would not cry. He's the only child who does not cry in a flight. He's the only child I've seen who can be taken into a recording studio in my monitor room, where I am singing – and the slightest noise can be caught – and he will just observe me singing. So he loves music.

Rajeev Masand: Tell me, is there a song which he reacts to, which he seems to actually like?

Sonu Nigam: One song which I sing to him when I put him to sleep (sings lullabye), he puts his head in my armpit and he sleeps.

Rajeev Masand: Okay, Sonu, you've been the voice of Shah Rukh Khan ever since Pardes. You've given Shah Rukh Khan some of his biggest musical hits, whether it was Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, Chalte Chalte, Don, Dil Se, you've really been his voice. In 2007, though, Shah Rukh's biggest musical hits 'Chak De India' and 'Dard-e-Disco' were done by another singer, Sukhwinder Singh. Did you feel cheated?

Sonu Nigam: No, no, I've never really been only the voice of Shah Rukh Khan. It's just that both of us make more news.

Rajeev Masand: That is true.

Sonu Nigam: What has happened is that I've for Salman Khan so many of his latest songs (sings opening bars of 'Aaja Soniye') and 'Just Chill' (sings more songs). I've sung so many songs for Salman Khan, so many for Govinda. Just that me and Shah Rukh probably make so much noise. So there's no question of being or feeling cheated because neither has he ever recommended me, nor have I ever asked for a Shah Rukh Khan song.

Rajeev Masand: When you heard those songs, did you feel 'I could have done these better'?

Sonu Nigam: Yeah, there is one song I think I could have done better. I won't sing, I won't talk about it.

Rajeev Masand: Okay. Now let's ask you to give a few lines from one of Shah Rukh's songs, my personal favourite. The audience will agree that it's a really terrific song from Main Hoon Na - the title song?

Sonu Nigam: (Sings 'Main Hoon Na')

Rajeev Masand: Sonu, you're a man who wears many hats. You're, of course, an accomplished singer, you've acted in a few films, and there's also another thing about you. You do some great mimicry, I think now people know this. You do great impersonations. I've heard a lovely Kailash Kher impersonation, I believe you do a mean Himesh Reshammiya impersonation. Tell me, do your colleagues ever get disturbed? I know you do it in a good spirit.

Sonu Nigam: No, I think initially not just the colleagues but the media was also a bit offended because they've never seen a singer cracking another singer so openly like this. They've always seen actors or comedians doing it – Johnny Leverji doing it. But a young singer – 19 years old, 20 years old – imitating Uditji and Kumar Sanuji and everybody else. I used to read articles where people said, 'Who is he? What has he achieved as yet?' Then gradually they realised you have got to be more open-minded and it's a part of humour.

Rajeev Masand: Okay. Let me tell you something interesting – about someone who is not only a very big fan of your singing but also of your mimicry. I'm talking about Lata Mangeshkarji. She says she is very entertained by the way you impersonate her…

Sonu Nigam: HER?

Rajeev Masand: She's apparently heard it and that's a tough challenge. I'm sure our friends here want to hear you do that. Doing other males, I am guessing, is relatively simpler but Sonu Nigam doing Lata Mangeshkar? And this is a request from Didi herself. You can't say no to Didi.

Sonu Nigam: You are lying to me. How could she be –

Rajeev Masand: No, she thinks it is very entertaining because you do it in the right spirit and she is always very amused.

Sonu Nigam: Oh God! This is like worse than I have ever done before. All I can do is sometimes try to caricature her voice.

Rajeev Masand: Okay

Sonu Nigam: Also, the way she would say Namaste to people, specially when she wants to avoid people. So when she wants to avoid people, she would do a Namaste and then she would walk away (gestures). Matlab, 'jaao, abhi bahut ho gaya tumhara natak'. She would do this and then would walk away like this (gets up and mimics).

Rajeev Masand: You have never got that treatment?

Sonu Nigam: Thankfully, never, never, never! She knows I love her. She is very kind to people who are genuinely in love with her. She meets a lot of people who say 'Didiii!' (mimics). All I can do – (sings like Lata Mangeshkar).

Rajeev Masand: Now since we are on the subject of other singers, your contemporaries, your rivals, tell me you and Himesh had this fairly public war of words, didn't you?

Sonu Nigam: Good you brought this up! Name one article where I have taken his name.

Rajeev Masand: Yeah, you didn't, actually. But there was a lot of dirt thrown your way, wasn't there?

Sonu Nigam: There was an article that came in one of the newspapers where the headline of the article was 'Who is Sonu?' and the subject of the article was he and his people were saying that our shows in America were so big that comparing him to Sonu Nigam is like comparing Amitabh Bachchan to Dino Morea. That was the content of the article. I have read all that. I was in America, I was touring at that time. I read it. My people felt offended but we were laughing at it because we were doing really well over there.

Rajeev Masand: Right, the numbers are there for the world to see.

Sonu Nigam: And after that, I went to America twice, last year. So, in one year I had three tours. So, we let our work speak, first of all. And secondly, I never blamed him. Neither he called me back to apologise, or to clarify, so we have just left it there.

Rajeev Masand: Now by popular demand, this is a song of yours that's very popular, a song that everyone likes to hear again and again and again, and we've heard this song several times but we never tire of it – from Kal Ho Na Ho, the title song?

Sonu Nigam: Oh. (Sings)

Rajeev Masand: It's widely believed that the sixties and seventies were the golden era of Hindi film music. Why do you think that today, perhaps, we don't make as good music? Or is that true, really? Is it because, perhaps, today everyone is looking for the next instant hit?

Sonu Nigam: I'll give you a very, very practical and realistic reply to this. Sixties and seventies, of course, was a great time for music, sixties and fifties, primarily, because a lot of vocally great quality songs were coming in, which singers like Mohammad Rafi – the king of voices, the king of playback singers – Talat Mahmoodji, Hemant Kumarji, Manna Dey sahib, Mukeshji, the forgotten people, you see? From seventies, we all know about Kishore Kumarji, the stalwart. But people who are really connoisseurs will know deeper of music. Saigal sahib has been forgotten today but the contribution of those people to music of today is phenomenal and can never be forgotten.

Now, today's times, people who say that the golden era of music was the sixties-seventies are the people who have heard and grown up on that music. I always feel old is gold. Wait for today's children to turn 30-40. They will say 2000s was a golden era of music, when we heard 'Kal Ho Na Ho', when we heard 'Main Hoon Na', the songs of today. So, it is human habit to always glorify the past and condemn the present. It's our habit.

Rajeev Masand: Since we were on the subject of instant hits, a few lines from one of yours songs which became an instant hit, and it's a very popular song, from Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, 'Just Chill'.

Sonu Nigam: (Sings)

Rajeev Masand: Sonu, this is the round where we do the quick question-answers, the instant replies. I throw you a couple of tough questions and you reply without thinking very hard.

Sonu Nigam: Okay.

Rajeev Masand: According to you, the song of the year was –

Sonu Nigam: Uh, Om Shanti Om's 'Aankhon Mein Teri' (sings). I love that song.

Rajeev Masand: Okay, the one international artiste you would like to perform the duet with?

Sonu Nigam: Mariah Carey.

Rajeev Masand: You would have been a super-hit movie star if you'd been launched in a film by which director?

Sonu Nigam: If Love in Nepal was my first movie, the story would have been different.

Rajeev Masand: The one song of yours that you cannot bear to listen to –

Sonu Nigam: Of mine? Uh, the music writer will feel offended, just forget it.

Rajeev Masand: Oh no, come on

Sonu Nigam: No, no, just forget it.

Rajeev Masand: Okay, one thing Himesh has that you don't have?

Sonu Nigam: Umm… I can't answer that. Uh – No, no, no. Oh yeah! Cap! Thank you! But no – no! I've got lots of caps but I can't wear caps because people start comparing. But I've got lots of caps, though. I like caps, myself.

Rajeev Masand: And finally, the one thing you have that Himesh doesn't have?

Sonu Nigam: Uh – humility.

Rajeev Masand: It's been over two years since you released a non-film album –

Sonu Nigam: Three years.

Rajeev Masand: Three years. And in February, there's going to be a new album.

Sonu Nigam: Yep.

Rajeev Masand: It's called Classically Mild

Sonu Nigam: Yeah, first time it's being announced on television that Classically Mild will be my next album.

Rajeev Masand: And the interesting thing about this album is that it's an essentially classical album but of course, that Sonu Nigam does has to be popular. So basically it is you taking classical, good music, and reaching it out to the masses.

Sonu Nigam: Ah, yes. I think it was much needed in today's times and also because – like any athlete would do, we all have to do something better than we did the last time. We have to surpass our own targets and this is one album which I thought was much needed in India. I know how important it is to be rooted in classical music. And the generation of today who listen to me, must also know that I listen to classical music, and I am influenced by classical music.

Rajeev Masand: Okay, apparently the music video which you've shot, they made you take your shirt off for it. You had less than a month to get fit and be ready for it. We see the results there. Give us a little sample of Classically Mild - you can keep your shirt on. Give us a few lines.

Sonu Nigam: (Sings 'Des Kahe Aaja Re')

Rajeev Masand: Some high notes there!

Sonu Nigam: When you sing such kind of songs, you need to either do half an hour of riyaaz prior to that or stand up and sing. As I said, I am not as classically-trained as people think I am. So that's what I said, I'm overrated.

Rajeev Masand: Before we go, a very appropriate song to end this show with – Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - the title song.

Sonu Nigam: (Sings 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna')

Rajeev Masand: Perfect note to end on.

Thanks a lot for the link and the article.

I must say Sonu is one-smart man. He knows how to sound like a star and yet diplomatic...I mean he refused to name his own least favorite song, a song of another singer that he would have done better job on, and smilingly took a U-turn when he was asked to name a himesh's thing that he doesn't have..
In response to one of his qualities that himesh lacks, he said "humility"; which is quite true and I m sure EVERYONE agrees with that..cuz HR definitely lacks that.. 😆
He named another singer's song, "ajab si" as the best song..and yet not his..that shows how open he is to liking other people's work even though he is a part of the same industry..
His best response, however, was his reaction to his so-called "war of words" in which he simple said, "name one article where I have defamed HR's name" a clear call to prove that a STAR doesn't need to defame other people to achieve his STARDOM.. 😳

Thanks for sharing the link and the article. Good to see you.

thanx for the link and the article.

thnx 4 the link & article 😳