Whatever happened to Anuradha Paudwal?
Aniruddh Chawda
Where is Anuradha Paudwal these days?
Just a few years ago it seemed that she was ready to obliterate all her
peers in the "new" generation of singers. She was at her peak around '90-91
with the mega-success of "Aashique," "Dil," "Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahin," "Lal
Dupatta Mulmul Ka," and to a lesser extent, "Saajan," "Jeena Marna Tere
Sang," "Jeena Teri Gali Mein," etc.
Her success had to do mainly with two things:
1. In the era of the "democratization" of Indian pop music, arguably starting
in the early 80's after the death of Mohd. Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar's ease
into a more sedentary recording schedule, for the generation that was
trained into accepting Lata's voice as the standard for excellence, it was
Ms. AP that stepped in to emulate a "young-Lata" type of singing style. She
benefitted more from this than, say, Suman Kalyanpur, who even
though sounded more like Lata, was Lata's comtemporary and had to withstand
the pressure of making her presence felt in the midst of the juggernaut that
was the "Mangeshkar Monopoly." The same can be said for Shabbir Kumar,
Mohd. Aziz, Anwar and a host of others that came into the limelight after
the incomparable Rafi's demise. The most extreme beneficiary of this type
of "success" has to be Kumar Shanu's sometimes amazing ability to sound like
Kishore Kumar. But I digress.
Ms. Paudwal had a few things going for her. Being from a Marathi family
well-connected to Bollywood insiders, she got her break early. I am not
sure exactly when her career in Hindi background vocals started, but it
would be safe to say that she started making her name in the very late
'70's. To my knowledge, sh jus the only one of the current female background
vocalists to have the distinct honor of having sung opposite Mohd. Rafi. "Bol
meri Jaan," from "Jaani Dushman" (1979) comes to mind readily.
2. The second reason for her success was her relationship with Gulshan
Kumar and his T-Series cassette label. Beginning in the mid-80's, GK's
shrewedness in marketing began to payoff as he was able to virtually
monopolize the soundtracks for Hindi movies. Only a few giants, most
notably Raj Kapoor and anything to do with a score that was dominated by the
Mangeshkar sisters, for obvious reasons, continued to sell under the
arch-rival HMV label. GK/AP did a remarkable job in eliminating AP's
contemporaries such as Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamoorthy from the
most soundtracks marketed by T-Series.
The height of Ms. P's obsession with removing her competion had to be the
incidence involving a song from "Dil." More than one song on the soundtrack
was originally recorded by Alka Yagnik. After test marketing indicated that
the songs would be a huge success (I think it may have been "Mujhe Neend na
aye," and "Hamne ghar choda hain"), GK/AP re-issued the same soundtrack
with, viola, Paudwal singing the same songs. I remember reading that even
All India Radio raised objection in having to pull the Alka Yagnik songs off
the airwaves.
I suspect that this is the same reason a mega-score such as "Tezaab" has
never been COMPLETELY released on compact disc by T-Series. Only a song
here or a song there appears on one or more "greatest hits" types of CD's. This
is possibly because 1) Alka Yagnik had one of the best-selling songs of the
'80s with "Ek Do Teen," while the Anuradha/Amit Kumar number "Jeena Nahin
Mujhe hain marna," paled in comparision and 2) Laxmikant-Pyarelal would have
raised a major stink about Gulshan Kumar trying to dub the song in
Anuradha's voice.
A. Paudwal's fall from those lofty heights of popularity can also be
pinpointed to some significant developments:
1. She tried to dictate Nadeem Shravan's recordings thru her T-Series
influence. Even though N/S have a looooong way to go before fullfilling the
promises of say, Shanker-Jaikishen, Naushad or Laxmikant Pyarelal, to name
but a few, N/S WERE the reigning champs of the pop parade from '90 to '93.
One just does not meddle in the recording affairs of a newcomer duo that was
reportedly earning Rs. 25 lakhs per flick after "Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahin."
This meddling lead to a breakup between then super-successful MD's N/S and
T-Series/Gulshan Kumar/A. Paudwal. While this divorce hurt both sides
professionally, N/S were able to continue with siginificant contributions
under other labels for films such as "Deewana," "Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke,"
etc.
2. The death of Arun Paudwal, Anuradha's husband. Even though this event's
effect of Anuradha's professinal career can be judged in the view of the
rumored increased closeness between her and Gulshan Kumar, it is obvious
that her husband's death took a significant toll on her personal life.
One read the stories of her late husband's ghost haunting the T-Series
recording studio and Anuradha's declaration that her very young (eight year
old?) son was ready to step into his father's shoes as a music director.
These stories did not help her career.
3. Lastly, the financial troubles of T-Series. The "democratization" of
the Indian music business cited earlier had come a full circle. Venus,
Tips, a much rejuvinated/repackaged HMV, Megasound, Lara, etc and a dearth
of other labels were cutting into Gulshan Kumar's territory. He could not
always rely on finding the next Nadeem/Shravan as he "presented" them with
"Aashique," or Anand/Milind ("Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak," "Lal Dupatta...," &
"Dil") to sell bizzillion cassettes anymore. A sure factor in T-Series'
demise has to do with their inability of provide high quality CD's. The
ever increasing consumer appetite for CD's, at the expense of audio
cassettes, further lead to declining profits. The competition was marketing
high-quality CD's of Indian movie soundtracks mfd. in Europe while T-Series
insisted on selling their poor sounding home-made product.
Even though Anuradha is currently touring the U.S., with Udit Narayan and
others, the spark that was incidental with her name recognition just a few
years ago is, rather sadly, missing. In 1988, I attended the concert of a
life-time when Laxmi/Pyare did a show in Chicago. Accompanying them were
Anuradha Paudwal, Kavita Krishnamoorthy, Nitin Mukesh, Suresh Wadkar, Jaya
Pradha, Rajeev Kapoor, etc. One only wonders what type of show this same
troop would present today if only their ego's could remain parked outside.
But that's showbiz!
Comments?
Aniruddh
u
amit agarwal
|> The height of Ms. P's obsession with removing her competion had to be the
|> incidence involving a song from "Dil." More than one song on the soundtrack
|> was originally recorded by Alka Yagnik. After test marketing indicated that
|> the songs would be a huge success (I think it may have been "Mujhe Neend na
|> aye," and "Hamne ghar choda hain"), GK/AP re-issued the same soundtrack
|> with, viola, Paudwal singing the same songs. I remember reading that even
|> All India Radio raised objection in having to pull the Alka Yagnik songs off
|> the airwaves.
Let me get this straight. So when DIL came out, the songs in the movie
were recorded by Alka Yagnik. However, when GK released them on audio
(T-series), they were in AP's voice. What about other cassette companies
(like HMV for instance)? How could GK reissue the same soundtrack?
Wouldn't the MD's Anand Milind have to involved for rerecording the songs?
Why did AIR have to pull off the songs? Why couldn't they continue
to air the ALka Yagnik versions? I don't understand this. Has this ever
happened before? Please elaborate.
Many thanx
Amit Agarwal
Aniruddh Chawda
>'70's. To my knowledge, sh jus the only one of the current female background
>vocalists to have the distinct honor of having sung opposite Mohd. Rafi. "Bol
>meri Jaan," from "Jaani Dushman" (1979) comes to mind readily.
>Comments?
>Aniruddh
I should correct two items:
Ist sentence should read:
To my knowledge, she is the only one of the current female background
vocalists to have the distinct honor of having sung opposite Mohd. Rafi.
2nd sentence is incorrect:
Rafi/Paudwal did NOT sing this song from "Jaani Dushman." It was sung by
Kishore and Anuradha.
I should have used an example like "Payalian chanki ke naa, chanki, chanki,"
from the Jeetendra starrer "Jyoti Bane Jwala."
Sorry!
Aniruddh
>u
Aniruddh Chawda
>Many thanx
>Amit Agarwal
This is what I recall reading. "Dil" is definitely produced by
T-Series/Gulshan Kumar. Anand Milind initially had Alka Yagnik and Udit
Narayan or Suresh Wadkar sing those songs. Test marketing was done by
T-Series. Included in this test marketing was issuing "advance" copies of
the T-Series "soundtrack" for "Dil" to AIR. After the songs began to
receive a wider audience, Gulshanji yanked back his "advance" copies from
wherever they were. Being the producer of "Dil" GK could do, I am assuming,
whatever he pleased with the original recordings. As is normally the case,
it is the producer or music marketer that retains the rights to the songs on
a soundtrack. Anand Milind would, in this scenario, not have anything to
say about it. Gulshan Kumar was BOTH the producer and music marketer for
"Dil." This factor probably SEVERELY limited his meddling on other T-Series
soundtracks.
Keep in mind that this happened in 1990, when Anand Milind were still trying
to get a foothold in the industry. Their only mega-hits before "Dil" were
"QSQT" and "Lal Dupatta...." BOTH under the T-Series label. When asked why
they did not object to having "their" songs dubbed by AP/GK, they shrugged
it off by saying that they had no hand in it. Doing so would have been, one
can only surmise, biting the hand that was feeding them.
We all know that Indian courts do not generally enforce copyrights. Maybe
that had something to do with it. As clear as it is that
GK is no fan of Lata Mangeshkar (and vice-versa, I'm positive), he has probably
sold more audio cassettes of Old Gold by Lata and others. Logically, it
would appear that HMV most likely controls rights to all the Old Gold stuff,
but again, being the democracy that India is, one can probably find any Old
Gold Lata tune on HMV AS WELL AS on T-series.
Enuff Gulshan Kumar bashing for now?
Later,
Aniruddh
COLLinda
soon. It's advertised ad infinitum during the local cable station's Hindi
programs. / L. Nelson, Chicago.
Ramaswamy M. Govindan
>Many thanx
>Amit Agarwal
DIL was released under the T-series label only. HMV was in no way involved
with it. GK initially had a trial release with Alka singing some of the
songs. When the music became popular, they withdrew the soundtrack, dubbed
the songs with Anuradha's voice and released it again.
Interestingly, in the case of Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin, Gulshan did a
similar thing with Sanu. The Chitrahar shows had Sanu singing the songs
but the cassettes had some other guy (Debashish, Babla, etc) doing the
songs. Finally however the cassettes were re-released with Sanu singing
the songs.
:x
Pankaj Patel
Add Nadeem (of Nadeem Shravan) to the list of singing MDs. He has just
released the soundtrack from AYESHA in which he sings almost all the songs.
Incidentally, it is the MDs that are gaining the upper hand in Bollywood at
the moment. They have been making more money then the film makers and as a
consequence are actively involved in making movies as well as music. The
examples that I have heard about are Nadeem, with AYESHA, Bappi Lahri
with Rock Dancer and also Viju Shah (of Mohra fame).
---Pankaj
---
shlok....@gmail.com
Payaliya chanki ke na is form Do Premi- Rishi Kapoor Moushmi... and why people forget Anuradha Sang Hum toh gareeb hai from Aap Beeti , her first hit
sakshi.k...@gmail.com
aviator...@gmail.com
GANESH R Iyer
DIL was produced by Ashok Thakeria. GK was co producer.
AP and GK had some Bhajan albums too, in credit
After the demise of GK, T-Series bounced back in CD market and Film Production- under Kishen Kumar and Bhushan Kumar. But, they didn't associate with AP.
AP definitely need be credited (along with GK) for bringing down monopoly of Latha Mangeshkar. Her sound was definitely catchy.
