Family comes first
Surjit Khan, born as Surjit Singh Khan in Barana village, district SAS Nagar, made his singing debut with album Kikli Pa Ke in 2000, following which, he churned out a string of successful albums such as Husn, Dupatta and Neendraan. Though a household name in Punjab, there are many facets to the singer that remain fairly unknown, that of a record producer, music director and writer.
Surjit Khan, born as Surjit Singh Khan in Barana village, district SAS Nagar, made his singing debut with album Kikli Pa Ke in 2000, following which, he churned out a string of successful albums such as Husn, Dupatta and Neendraan. Though a household name in Punjab, there are many facets to the singer that remain fairly unknown, that of a record producer, music director and writer.
His last two releases —Headliner (2009) and Headliner 2 (2012) — came out after a sabbatical of three years. HT City talks to the singer and finds out the reason behind his absence from the Punjabi music scene.
Last chartbuster: Tracks such as Been, Teri Jugni, Tor Shakeena Di and Ghabru Gulaab Varga made Surjit
Khan’s Headliner 2 a super hit album.
And, then the pause: Despite the fact that Khan was offered a lot of work after the success of his initial albums, he took his time to focus on projects which he found interesting. “I need my own sweet time to get creatively rejuvenated, which in turn refreshes the artiste within me.
Otherwise, it is easy to keep churning out albums. The break was also because I was travelling for some time with my wife and twins — a son and a daughter, who are now nine years old — to the US, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. It’s not just my career anymore; besides singing, I am also concentrating on the upbringing and academic development of my children. My son is taking professional training for cricket and I am keenly supervising his progress,” shares Surjit.
Meanwhile: I am currently focusing on the post production of my new (untitled) album, while finalising foreign locales for the shoot of the songs. In fact, I also did playback singing for Punjabi film Aappan Pher Milange.
Comeback plan: Khan’s next album is all set to hit the market in August this year. “The album is ready and in its post-production phase. It is a nine-track album with bits of my quintessential style. The songs belong to various genres, right from peppy dance numbers and romantic songs to folk and sentimental numbers.