Meri awaaz suno: Sudesh

Anjali Singh / TNN / Jan 18, 2008, 00:00 IST

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Singer Sudesh Bhonsle is tired of people stealing away the credit due to him.

<arttitle><i>Meri awaaz suno</i>: Sudesh</arttitle>

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Sudesh (TOI Photo)Life for Sudesh Bhonsle in the film industry has hardly been a star-studded dream unlike many others who came to the tinseltown with half the talent that he possess.
Arguably one of the most versatile playback and voice-over artistes today, Bhonsle laments the disregard shown towards his hard work by the Bollywood bigwigs.
In a one-on-one with KT, he tells us all...
Why are you so miffed at being called the voice of Amitabh Bachchan?

I am not upset at being called voice of Amitabhji. In fact, it is a great honour. The point that I am trying to make is that singers are not treated with any respect in the film industry.
We are not even called to the audio releases of songs that we sing. And this despite the fact that even when movies flop, their songs are a hit.
Similarly, when I sing Jumma Chumma, Sona Sona, Shawa Shawa and umpteen other songs for Amitji, credit should be given on the cassettes and films credits.

What could be the reason for such treatment?
Talent ki kadar nahin hain is film industry mein. People just want to use artistes to get their work done. Leave alone being credited, I am not even paid properly for my work and nor is any royalty given to us for our own songs.
Worse still, I am not even allowed to sing my popular numbers in my stage shows. You make it sound as if the situation is very bad for you alone...
Well, it is. Let me quote you some examples: After Sanjeev Kumar passed away five of his films would have been scrapped had I not dubbed for the movies, but nowhere was my name mentioned in the credits. On another occasion, before the release of Tezaab I was called in to dub for Anil Kapoor.
In fact, over 70 per cent of the voice-over for his dialogues was done by me. But here too my name was nowhere. Again, in the film Joggers’ Park I sang a number in KL Saigal’s voice and it was so well done that people thought it was the original Saigal track.
Even Subhash Ghai commented that he could not make out that it was not real track. Yet when the music was released only Ashaji, Adnan Sami, Usha Uthup and Jagjit Singh were called for it and Sudesh Bhonsle was given a huge miss. Why? Only people who do such things can explain.
Have you ever considered legal action?
Had I been in the West such options would have been available. But here such things are not usually considered by the artistes.
Singers like me are deprived of crores of rupees that music companies and producers earn on our songs and something needs to be done about it.
Zara sochiye, agar Rafi Saheb aur Kishore Kumar ki awaaz Rishi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna ke gano se nikal de. Would they become as popular as they were?
So how do you plan to get the credit due to you?
Sudesh Bhonsle is known by his work and that’s what I will be doing more than ever. Be it acting or singing I am an ace and I will be more in front of the screen than behind it.
I am already doing a few shows on TV and will continue to do more such assignments. On my stage shows across the world people know that if Sudesh Bhonsle is invited for three hours they will get to see the whole film industry in one man.

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