Female solos on decline in Bollywood music?

The industry will never see another Lata, who will fight for the rights of female vocalists or the entire playback industry as a whole. Plots are written to accommodate more male solos than female; female tracks are in fact being dished out to male playback singers. Sunday MiD DAY does a trend soundcheck

The women just lost their voice.

A quick scan of the songlist printed at the back of flashy CD covers at city music stores can be a lesson in skewed sex ratio that would put Haryana's foeticide brigade to shame. Male tracks and duets outnumber female solos, and that's if the soundtrack includes a female solo at all.


Anushka Manchanda, Rekha Bhardwaj, Sunidhi Chauhan and
Shreya Ghoshal

The latest feminist flavour of the season, Prakash Jha's political saga Raajneeti that has a female character played by Katrina Kaif at its epicentre, has no time to devote to a full-fledged female number although there is one on the music album. Kavita Seth's Mora piya mose bolat naahi appears in a blink-and-miss special appearance on screen.

Rajneeti comes hot on the heels of big budget now-bombed Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites, which has two male solos but nothing for Spanish protagonist Barbara Mori to lip sync to. And Housefull, the all-out commercial money spinner with not one but three hot heroines to boast of, failed to accommodate a single female solo.

An earlier, although unsuccessful 2010 film, Badmaash Company is a classic case in point. Its score stands thus: five male solos. Female solos -- none. And if you though hazel-eyed power punch Kajol was filmmaker Karan Johar's eternal favourite, we are here to tell you, he loves Shah Rukh more. Two male solos, no female solo vocal in My Name Is Khan.

Some of the biggest hits of last year -- 3 Idiots, Wanted and Kaminey -- had more than six songs listed on their albums, none of them -- yes, you guessed it right -- was a female solo.

As the all-female rock band 4 Non Blondes would say: What's going on?

The music directors are far from ignorant of the change. And singer Shankar Mahadevan of composer trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is far from happy. "Our films have always been male-centric. It's unfortunate, but it's the hero that matters." The newer lot in the industry is trying to make a change, he says. "We'd love it if more films had female solos because the Hindi playback industry has some great female voices." Agreed Shekhar Ravjiani in an earlier interview, "Plots today make room for more male solos."

Lyricist Sameer who's been at the job of scripting lines that some of the industry's biggest stars have mouthed to music, for over two decades, attributes the trend to the gradual death of women-centric scripts. "Songs are driven by characters, and characters are driven by scripts. But I am hopeful about female solo numbers returning. I for one, enjoy writing them," says the man behind hit numbers like Jab Se Tere Naina from Saawariya.

The community of writers he is pointing a finger at hardly agrees. Niranjan Iyengar who is part of the Dharma Production camp, and has recently authored the dialogues and lyrics for My Name Is Khan, says, "Most of the songs today are not set to sync. They play in the background while the actors go about their scenes. So, I don't believe the trend is an outcome of a bias against the female character."

Those at the helm of the music industry, like chairman and managing director T-Series Bhushan Kumar, admit to modern scripts offering spare scope for women protagonists to bag a three-minute number to themselves. But he has a marketing gem to skirt the problem. "We can hardly ignore the large female audience that loves romantic tracks in female voices. What we are introducing are female versions of male songs, that we will release only for radio and ringtones."

We wonder what veteran Meena Kumari would say to that one. Pakeezah (1972), the story of tawaif Sahibjaan, saw her bag five female solos, all sung by Lata Mangeshkar, with no male number in the film. Historical magnum opus Mughal-E-Azam (1960) once again had five female solos and just one male single. Nagin (1976) had eight female, and two male solos.

Today, even a Jab We Met, considered by many as a female-oriented film, has one solo song picturised on Kareena Kapoor. In fact, a song picturised on her pining for love (Aaoge Tum Jab O Sajna) has been sung by a male vocalist.

Sunidhi Chauhan, one of the two most-sought-after female singers in the industry says the last three years prove a dismal female solo track record. "Even the item numbers, if you call them that, have been taken over by the boys. But it's a phase; people like change. We will be back to normal."

Hema Sardesai, the famous voice behind the Awaara Bhawre number from Sapnay (1997) that shot her to fame believes the trend is a direct reflection of the female protagonist's status in the industry. "Where are the female superstars who can put a foot down and demand a song?" New singer on the block, Antara Mitra who has been in the news for singing Bheegi si, bhaagi si from Raajneeti, says they have to make do with singing duets. "I'm a newcomer. I cannot afford to be too choosy," she admits.

Husky voiced Rekha Bhardwaj of Namak ishq ka fame takes an optimistic stance: "There is work for everyone. I have sung a thumri solo in Veer, and two for Ishqiya. I have solos in Saat Khoon Maaf too."

How many remember the Veer thumri, thanks to dismal promotion, is the question. Love Aaj Kal's male solos Twist and Ajj din chaddhiya are what come to mind, not Thoda thoda pyar aa gaya sung by Sunidhi.

Veteran composer Anandji, one part of composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji known for music of 1970s action potboilers like Don, might be pragmatic enough to say "we should move with the times", but he quickly deconstructs the reasons behind the fading female solo. "Older films included bhajans, romantic songs, and club numbers, so there was scope for women. We had hero-centric films then too, but the story encompassed a home, and female characters like the wife, mother, sister, giving the female solo a fair chance. Women have feelings too, and they must be expressed through a song's music," he says.

New millenium's best solos

Maar daala
Devdas 2002
Sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy
Filmed on Madhuri Dixit

Jadoo hai nasha hai
Jism 2003
Sung by Shreya Ghoshal
Filmed on Bipasha Basu

Sajna ve sajna
Chameli 2003
Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan
Filmed on Kareena Kapoor

Piya tora kaisa abhiman
Raincoat 2004
Sung by Shubha Mudgal
Filmed on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Kaisi paheli zindagani
Parineeta 2005
Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan
Filmed on Rekha, Raima Sen and Sanjay Dutt

Namak ishq ka
Omkara 2006
Sung by Rekha Bhardwaj
Filmed on Bipasha Basu, Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi

Barso re
Guru 2007
Sung by Shreya Ghoshal
Filmed on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Yeh ishq haaye
Jab We Met 2007
Sung by Shreya Ghoshal
Filmed on Kareena Kapoor

Mar jaawaan
Fashion 2008
Sung by Shruti Pathak
Filmed on Priyanka Chopra

Mudi mudi
Paa 2009
Sung by Shilpa Rao
Filmed on Vidya Balan and Abhishek Bachchan

Ladies-only songs to watch out for

Khilli re
From Raavan
By Reena Bhardwaj
Reena Bhardwaj's soothing notes have done full justice to Gulzar's lyrics and AR Rahman's striking score.

Hare kaanch ki chudiyaan
From Milenge Milenge
By Alka Yagnik
The soulful lyrics of this romantic number are enhanced by Alka's dipped-in-honey vocals.

Cabaret number
From Once Upon A Time In Mumbai
By Sunidhi Chauhan
This is a much talked about number since Sunidhi is singing Pritam's composition which has reportedly been inspired by the famous Helen dance number Piya tu from Caravan and Duniya mein logon ko from Apna Desh

The handbook

How to get a break in the Hindi playback industry

Some handy tips from Anushka manchanda who started off as part of a girl band that was formed through a reality show, and has been the voicee behind several hit hindi film numbers
>>Make a demo for music directors. Try to include at least three different kinds of songs but keep them to about a minute and a half each.
>>Get in touch with managers of music directors. If you can give them a live demo, great. So if they are working on a song that suits your voice, they'll remember you.
>>If you can find a manager, do it. Do your homework and approach someone who will give you sound advice, even if he/she doesn't take you on as a client.
>>Be patient, but not complacent. Get in touch with advertising and production agencies to get initial work like singing ad jingles. Any experience behind the mic is good for you.
>>A lot of music directors perform live, and participate in stage shows. They often require female singers. Check with their managers if you can be a part of their gigs.
>>Work hard and treat every song like it's the last song you'll ever get to sing. Give it everything you've got. Remember: the song is bigger than everything else. So don't be afraid to say if a part is hard for you to sing or if you need guidance from your music director. Experiment behind the mic, with their permission.
>>This is important: respect your music director and people you work with at the studio. Remember, they create the songs you sing and the technicians make you sound good.

Indian music is more dominated by man, & all music directors are also man so women arent getting much solos. I would love to watch some female music directors coming up, ofcourse there are female vocalists, directors, producers than why not a "Female Music Director"?, this might help women get better opportunities & be head to head with man.

Though we always say that male female are equal & India is better than before, but inspite of being in this new generation we get to see such prejudice. If we see carefully ,India is still a male dominated society, the lead heroes are paid much more than their female costars, most of the songs in the movies are sung by males, movie directors are all male (few exceptions like farah khan), Then reality shows like Indian idol 1, 2, 3 hardly females remain till the end & now even II5. Then MKMM followed deep sexiesm, only one female judge & 5 male judges & each team consisting 3 boys & 1 girl! I guess the only place where female get some focus is Ekta kapoors daily soaps, but these shows are based on the plights & fights of the female protagonist.

India still needs to work alot to remove such prejudices from the grass root level.

No dear, classical training wont help them get more songs. Infact how many of the male singers in the current batch are classically trained? only sonu?, Male singers like Atif aslam, neeraj shridhar, etc forget about being classically trained but donot even have a "Surili awaaz" but they still are getting much more songs & many of it are hit too.

And coming back to classical training, after singers with classical base like lataji, ashaji, kavita etc in the new batch of current female singer's Shreya ghoshal is well trained when it comes to indian classical, when she was small her mother enrolled her for formal training in Hindustani classical music in their town & then later under Kalyanji anandji (former judge of SRGMP) & mukta bide (as i am one of her fans I had checked this info). This has helped her in giving superb songs, but not in getting more songs like the way the males get. The ratio of female solos as compared to male solo's is i guess less then 10%.