After meeting with sucess as a playback and pop singer and popular host, Nigam has now decided to try his luck in tinsletown. Not many expected sonu nigam to stick on to hosting a television show for long. When he began hosting Sa Re Ga Ma, the popular television music show on Zee TV, he was just fledgling singer, trying to get a foothold in the film music industry. Whne he left left it three years later, Sonu Nigam was already a superstar. Not only is his film music career going gung ho, but he id also inundated bt offers to act in films. The first offer he took on is a T-series film, as yet untitled. ''I could not refuse this offer simply because T-series gave me the first break in my singing carrer. I generally do every project that comes to me through T-series, ''says the singer-turned-actor.
What probably prompted this cute-faced singer to think about an acting carrer is his soaring popularity with the female population. And the way they doorl at him. ''I am as seriouse about my acting career as I was about my music. I know I can make anything I put my mind to a sucess,'' he adds. Sonu has signed on three more films and the offers are still pouring in, not just for roles as the leading actor, but even for his music. A pop album called Jaan has just hit the markets, his fourth in over two tears. And he is already recording for the fifth album. Yes, work is pouring in. despite the fact that some people in the music industry call sonu nigam a clone. Of himself.
You have to just listen to the last few od his albums to know what they mean. There is very little to distinguish as Aashiqui from deewana from Mausam from jaan, his latest indi Pop album. lets take jaan for instance. Its got that distinct 'I have heard this somewhere before' quality. Soft, pathetically mushy and slow. The title track Tera milna pal do pal ka, meri dhadkanein churaye, written by Nida Fazil, the romantic poet, of hindi films, is accompanied by soft guitar notes, so soft that you have to virtually strain to hear them. Just like all his zillion other pop numbers.
As one particularly uncharitable critic puts it: ''it seems as if record company has one musical track in which it inserts similar sounding love lyrics. It must be saving them hell lot of money to rehash the same stuff. Mention this to sonu and he goes ballastic. ''They are just jealouse of me you know. They wonder how someone like me has made it so big. They think I am just a small town boy. Come on, my latest album is also a hit, just like deewana and that's what counts, isn't it?''
Now you know what hurts this pop singer the most: being labelled the quintessential small town boy who is struggling to get accepted in the chic, predominantly English speaking music word. Hear him a little more: ''I am not a small town boy, I was born in faridabad, which is close to Delhi, and was brough up in the capital. We had our own ups and downs, but it's not as if I have not seen big cities or anything''.
Being Called a small towner isn't the only thing that hurts. rejection by other pop singers leaves him fuming. The think that if you can say few lines in English, 'kuch thoda nahut English jhad liya', and can sing few lines, you have the roigh to be called a singer. They dont even consider the kind of work I have put in, the struggle I have gone through to reach here. Till about 1995, sonu was known more as the anchor sa re ga ma, the zee TV show for which he had cultivated this regular boy-next door image. The kind who always touched his elders feet, never raised his voice, never disobayed his papa...and then, wham! The change happened. He released his first pop album, somewhat unimaginatively titled Aashiqui and got the hot, Hot model Bipasha Basu to apper in the title video. What you saw was a skin tight levis clad Sonu, with a cigarett dangling insolently from his lips, chasing Bipasha through the streets of Mumbai.
I had to go for that image change. I had to get the attention of the young generation. That is the only way they would have accepted me. What's wrong with that? he defends. Nothing, accept that he loves running down other pop singers who do the same. here this one: ''Most people who think they are singers just depends on a video to sell them. They look smart and dance with this line up of beautiful women in short, short skirts dancing around them and think they can sing.
Incidentally, all of his videos have 'beautuful women in short, short skirts dancing around him. Oh well, I guess that's another issue. But to give sonu his due, the man, if he decides to put his heart into it, can give such heartbreaking ly sensitive numbers as sandese aate hain from border. Or even Do dil mil rahe hain...the haunting remantic number from subhash ghai's Pardesh. What then prompts him to do such risque songs as bijuria, from the pop album mausam?...Or to unashamedly copy pop start michael jackson, with the pelvis thrust and all. ''Oh, just mass acceptance. And the money.'' he shrugs. ''I am very clear. I have strugled a lot, I have seen real bad days. now I want to make money.'' You can't argue with that kind of logic? can you? Not when you consider that his ambitions include ''retiring into the countryside, owning acers of farms, and buffaloes and cows and horses.
