Soulful singer Sukhwinder Singh on what he chooses to sing and why he doesn’t rap

Sukhwinder Singh believes in adding new elements to his music every time. The singer, who has carved a special place for himself in the music industry, says every aspect of music – be it Indian folk, classical or even Hindi film music – has a zone of its own. “If I have achieved something in this industry in the last 25 years of my career, then that is because I have moulded my voice to suit all the genres,” says the singer.

The 43-year-old singer was earlier chosen for the 62nd National Award for his song Bismil from the film Haider in the category of Best Playback Singer (Male), which was announced by the Directorate of Film Festivals. “Bismil is a very charming and poetic song by Gulzaar Saab. I am glad that Vishal Bharadwaj ji choose my voice for it. It is a different kind of song that looks like a ballet on the screen, but when you hear it, the song sounds like an authentic Indian Opera,” says Sukhwinder, whose Jai Ho from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ had won the Oscar and the Grammy.

Confessing his love towards dance-oriented song numbers, Sukhwinder says he loves to see people dancing to his songs. The singer says, “I have so far done just one sad song, which is Layi Bhi Na Gayi in Chalte Chalte and sometimes, people dance on that as well.” The singer, who is largely inclined towards Sufi music, feels there is a lot of noise in the Hindi music industry today and one has to search hard for soulful music.

“There are only a few special people in this world and this holds true when it comes to music as well. What I mean to say is, people making good music in the industry today are very less and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to work with them. People like Gulzar saab, Rahman saab, Vishal ji, Prasoon Joshi, Javed ji for whom I sing, make excellent music. Inke music main you will never find noise. If at all they have made anything noisy that would be songs like Ghul Mil Ghul Mil Launda, Pagdi Sambhal Jatta or Bismil, which people have loved,” he says.

Sukhwinder who is averse to singing ‘vulgar and noisy numbers’, says he recently denied doing a song ‘Babaji Ka Ghanta’ for a Hindi feature film. He feels in the entertainment industry, be it music or Bollywood, everything has to be coherent and clean. “Experiments can be done, but they have to be simple. In fact, everything in Hindi films including the music and songs should be simple enough for people to comprehend. Dekhiye Baat Kehne ke Baad, Mujhe Yeh Nahi Kehna Hai Ke Maine Yeh Kaha,” he says, when asked about the current trend of rap music in Bollywood. “I would never like to associate myself with such trends, which have no shelf life. I choose a song only if I connect with its composition.”

He has recently completed his new music album ‘Jogi’, which he recorded after a gap of 10 years; the last one being ‘Nasha Hi Nasha’. “Jogi will be a rare combination of folk and classical music. I have worked a lot on this album including undergoing fresh training sessions on Indian classical music and learning the percussion instrument Dabuka,” he smiles. The album might see a May release.

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