The ANURADHA factor : Will it upset the playback scene?
neha_desai
Another article. Worth reading if only to know the hype she has generated.
http://www.expressindia.com/screen/jul11/cover.htm
--
Neha
Anuradha Paudwal's return to playback-singing has led to a lot of speculation.
Not just
among her rivals but also others in the music industry. Is she merely out to
regain her
position at the top, or is she in search of the kind of clout that will help
Super Cassettes
consolidate it position on the music scene once again?
A few months ago, when trade mags reported that Anuradha Paudwal would be
singing for films
once again, there was rejoicing, and also consternation in certain circles.
While composers like
Rajesh Roshan and even Nadeem, who is now hostile towards Super Cassettes,
welcomed her as a
great asset ("because she is one of the most versatile singers around today"),
some of the playback
singers seemed a bit uncomfortable. Apparently, because of the clout she was
bound to wield with
the backing of a major music company (super cassettes) which is once again
poised to make it to
the centrestage in music business.
This fear was also fomented by Anuradha Paudwal's resourcefulness.
Besides being a first-rate singer, she is endowed with an uncanny sense
of popular music. To give the devil her due, Anuradha had played no
mean role in the music revolution masterminded by Gulshan Kumar and
Super Cassettes, notwithstanding the ethics of his marketing strategy.
Lal Dupatta Mal Mal Ka and Ashiqui were pathbreakers, the
latter, discovering a market which until then very few knew existed.
Their success was as big a tribute to Anuradha Paudwal's musical
acumen as to Anand-Milind's and Nadeem-Shravan's respectively.
Lal Dupatta..., incidentally, was born out of a desire to sing a few
"really good" songs, as Anuradha recalls. "I had joined hands with
Anand-Milind to bring out an album of love songs," she says. "When the songs
topped the charts,
the idea of a film happened." Ashiqui was a continuation of the innovative
process. Though Lal
Dupatta didn't work as a film, Ashiqui directed by Mahesh Bhatt was a success —
mostly
because of the music. The film was like one long chitrahar interrupted by the
romantic interludes of
Anu Agarwal and Rahul Roy. The songs that didn't fit into Aashiqui, found their
way to another
Bhatt film (produced by Gulshan Kumar), Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin, a Pooja
Bhatt-Aamir Khan
starrer.
Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin saw Anuradha Paudwal and Gulshan Kumar in the eye of a
storm,
thanks to the now infamous game of dubbing. Gulshan Kumar's face-off with a
"high-handed"
Kumar Sanu led to most of his songs being dubbed, some of them by Anuradha
herself. Earlier,
Anuradha had caused a stir by dubbing some popular numbers from Indra Kumar's
Dil, originally
rendered by Alka Yagnik.
The stupendous success of Ashiqui, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, Dil and Saajan put
Anuradha in
an enviable position among female playback singers. It was, in a way, the
culmination of a long
struggle, which had begun with a haunting alaap in the Jaya-Amitabh starrer
Abhiman under SD
Burman in 1973. It was a period dominated by the Mangeshkar sisters, Lata and
Asha.
However, as dramatically as she had risen to the top, Anuradha
decided to chuck it all up one fine day. "I have made my point,"
she argued with those who questioned her incredible decision in
disbelief. "Now I want to do what I enjoy doing, at my own
pace." What she enjoyed doing was bringing out a series of
devotional albums. With Super Cassettes moving out of the film
music scene, she thought, she wouldn't be too comfortable
working outside. It was as if she could sense the confusion that
was about to confound the world of film music.
It is ironical that Anuradha's second innings should have begun
with a repetition of a dubbing controversy, with an aggrieved
Alka Yagnik once again questioning the ethics of already released songs being
dubbed (It had
happened before in Dil). But Anuradha is too cool to the charges. It's like a
kettle calling the pot
black, she smiles dismissively. She sees the whole controversy as a
manifestation of insecurity (see
interview).
Can Anuradha Paudwal's comeback disturb the prevailing equations in the playback
scene? Not
many are willing to hazard a conjucture. Nobody wants to stick his neck out.
"There are a number
of singers these days and the competition is fierce," avers a diplomatic Anu
Malik, who has already
recorded two songs with Anuradha — one for Khauf and another for Mr & Mrs
Khiladi. "Alka and
Kavita are already there, strongly entrenched, and there are a few talented new
singers making their
presence felt. I have introduced a girl called Sanjeevani, who is very good. I
find Hema Sardesai
good too." Will Anuradha be able to recapture her position at the top? Anu
sleeps over the
question. And reacts nearly four hours later, "She is a fantastic singer," he
says. "She has sung my
Khauf song exceptionally well."
Alka seems nonchalant about the difference Anuradha's comeback would make to
playback scene.
"I don't think it will make much of a difference," she says. "I had made a niche
for myself when she
(Anuradha) was very much there. I had worked my way up against strong
competition. So I am not
perturbed. In any case, I mostly sing youthful numbers."
Kavita Krishnamoorthy, who has been going neck-to-neck with Alka in recent
times, is more
pragmatic. "It depends on the kind of clout Super Cassettes manages to wield,"
she says. "And the
number of films they take on. Anuradha is bound to be the first choice to sing
for all films whose
music rights are with Super Cassettes. Ideally, the composer should decide who
should sing a
particular song but that's not how things work here. It's the music companies
which take all the
decisions." About her own position she says, "I have been mostly singing songs
with a light classical
base. I rank third when it comes to singing romantic numbers and duets, though I
do enjoy singing
them whenever I get a chance. I think, Anuradha will affect Alka the most,
because she has been
singing most of the romantic numbers."
Tips and Venus have shown strong loyalties towards Alka Yagnik in the past few
years. In the last
couple of years, however, Kavita has strengthened her presence considerably
especially after her
brilliant numbers in 1942-A Love Story and later Khamoshi - The Musical.
Kumar Taurani of Tips and Ganesh Jain of Venus claim that they would have no
problems getting
Anuradha to sing for their company. She has already sung for Tips' Bade Miyan
Chhote Miyan
and Dehak.
"She is an excellent singer," says Taurani, "and it's up to the music directors
to decide if they want
her to sing for them."
Jain doesn't think that Anuradha's reentry would lead to cold-blooded rivalry.
"Today, the music
scene is like an ocean. There's enough room for everyone," he says. Besides
Tips, Anuradha has
already sung for Venus and HMV. With Super Cassettes pitching for the music
rights of a large
number of new films (they already have on hand about 20 films including five
from ABCL), it
shouldn't be long before Anuradha makes her presence felt.
Jatin, of Jatin-Lalit duo of composers, agrees with Taurani and Jain that music
companies other than
Super Cassettes should have no reservations about getting Anuradha to sing for
them. "As far we
are concerned, there will be no interference," says Jatin. "ABCL's Loveria
wasn't with Super
Cassettes when we got Anuradha to sing. The film went to them later. The day we
heard that she
was open to singing for films again, we approached her. The song she sang for us
has turned out so
good that when Pyareji (Pyarelal) heard the song he couldn't believe that it was
the same Anuradha
Paudwal."
Jatin regrets that Anuradha's comeback should be shrouded in a controversy. "I
think she shouldn't
have dubbed Alka's songs. Such things lead to unnecessary hostility."
But hostility, feels Anuradha, has always baulked her. "People here don't like
competition," she says
somewhat cynically. But she is prepared for the battle. To reclaim what she had
voluntarily
surrendered.
INTERVIEW
Why did you make a sudden decision to return to playback singing after being
away for
seven years?
Wherever I went people kept asking me why I had given up singing. They were film
buffs who only
listened to film music, and didn't know I was singing a number of non-film
songs. Their concern set
me thinking. And then, Super Cassettes which had been going slow on film titles,
was once again
back into film music. So I thought it was the right time to reconsider my
earlier decision.
Why did you quit in the first place? Your decision, when you were right on top,
seemed to
intrigue a lot of people.
There wasn't a dramatic reason at all. I felt, I had had enough and wanted to do
my own thing. I
wanted to bring out a series of devotional albums. Super Cassettes was also
moving away from film
music and film production at that juncture. The market situation had got
distorted, with too many
players invading the field.
When you decided to make a comeback, why did you have to do so on a
controversial note
— by dubbing Alka's songs in Itihaas? It's generally being seen as a move to
grab
attention.
I didn't have to do anything of the sort for attention. I had quit on my own
when I was doing
extremely well, and left the field wide open. I didn't have any great desire to
tread on Alka's toes.
But what happened has a history behind it. I want to clear things once and for
all. On the eve of the
release of Itihaas, the producers of the film approached Gulshanji and said they
were very unhappy
with the marketing of the cassettes of the film (The music rights of the film
were with ABCL).
Though the film was about to be released, the music hadn't picked up. So could
he do something to
salvage the situation? Gulshanji offered to take up the marketing only if he was
free to get some of
the songs dubbed to improve the quality. The producers agreed and that was how I
came into the
picture. If everything was all right and the music was doing well, why would the
producer approach
Gulshanji? After everything was sorted out, I was contacted by the music
directors of the film,
Sameer Sen-Dilip Sen, to dub threes songs. They also got Hariharan to dub a song
originally sung
by Kumar Sanu. But nobody is questioning the ethics of it. More than the
dubbing, the reaction
seems to have been directed at my comeback. I was told that some of the
interested parties had got
together to work out a strategy to "greet" me when the news of my recording my
first film song, after
nearly seven years, was out.
Apparently, Alka has said somewhere that I have tried to throttle her career by
dubbing the Itihaas
songs. I didn't know her career depended on those three songs. I don't
understand why such
controversies begin and end with Anuradha Paudwal? Nobody said a thing when
Lataji dubbed a
Kavita Krishnamoorthy number in 1942: A Love Story. And Alka herself has dubbed
Kavita's
song in Premgranth. I see insecurity behind such tirades. If you have an
identity and people know
your worth, nobody can ignore you. When I decided to comeback to sing in films
people who
mattered welcomed me.
But Nadeem has said that he and Shravan won't work with you.
That's upto them. What can I do about it?
Apparently, he is bugged because Super Cassettes went back on the initial
commitment
and dumped his private album Hi Ajnabi.
To put the record straight, the manner in which Nadeem sold Hi Ajnabi to
Gulshanji was dubious.
He approached me first and said we should do an album of love songs on the lines
of Ashiqui.
`Let's recreate the Ashiqui magic,' he said. I was game. I discussed it with
Gulshanji and he was
open to the idea. Then, without telling me, he (Nadeem) quietly went and sold
his Hi Ajnabi to
Gulshanji. He was later upset because the hoarding announcing his album didn't
go up in time. He
was himself involved in the artwork for the hoarding, and it wasn't ready in
time. Gulshanji couldn't
wait forever to release the cassette and that seemed to upset Nadeem. So, after
recording three
songs with me for Ashiqui II, he began stalling. He told Gulshanji that he would
record with me
only after his hoarding was put up. I am very hurt by his behaviour.
How have the other composers reacted to your comeback?
They seem happy. I have recorded with Jatin-Lalit, Anu Malik and Rajesh Roshan,
and it has been
absolutely fine.
Since you're attached to Super Cassettes, will you sing for other music
companies like
Venus and Tips?
Why not? It depends on the composers. If they want me to sing, I will, for any
company. I have
already sung for Tips, Venus and HMV. But only film songs. I will be doing
non-film albums only
for Super Cassettes.
In your `tribute' series, you have mostly chosen Lata Mangeshkar's favourite
composers,
and sung all her immortal numbers. Was it an attempt to upstage her with a
vengeance?
I don't think it's fair to say that. Did anybody say Lata Mangeshkar was trying
to upstage KL Saigal
or Amirbai Karnataki when she brought out the Shradhanjali series? I genuinely
admire the work
of composers like SD Burman, Madan Mohan and Roshan. I have grown up admiring
their
immortal numbers, so why can't I pay them a tribute? I wish people would stop
attributing motives
to me.