Kumar Sanu calls interference from actors, directors big problem; says 'confidence isn’t there anymore'

Kumar Sanu reveals how recording songs for Hindi films has changed over the years, and talks about the problems he faces now.

Kumar Sanu has said that nowadays, there is a lot of interference from everyone including the actors, directors and even the financers, when a singer records a song. He also said that when he recorded songs in his younger days, he never even saw the actor. ()

Kumar Sanu is not happy with the interference of actor and directors in song recordings.

Having started his career as a playback singer in the late 80s, Kumar Sanu was one of the top singers in Bollywood in the 90s. He has reportedly lent his voice to nearly twenty one thousand songs in various languages, including his mother tongue Bengali as well as Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Manipuri, Nepali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Odia and English, among many others.

Kumar Sanu told Indian Express that earlier he never saw the actor during the recording of maximum songs that he has sung. “Back in the day, the most beautiful thing was that there was no interference. The hope was that you will do justice to the work assigned to you. There would be no one to interfere and say, ‘Do it this way, or that way.’ If the music is by Nadeem-Shravan, the director would only choose the songs he wants. That interference is a big problem today. Now, there is interference from everyone — be it the actor, producer, financer or the director. They tell the music composer, ‘You just make the song, rest we will do.’ But this wasn’t the case earlier.” He added that the music director also used to pick the singer.

The singer also said that earlier, singers did not communicate with the actor about the way they will sing songs and the ‘work was clearly divided, no one tried to do each other’s work’. Kumar Sanu also said that any kind of interference was avoided, thanks to the clear and fool-proof work division. He added that filmmakers had confidence that if (for example) Nadeem-Shravan are composing the music, it will be good; or Kumar Sanu will do a good job if he is singing. “That confidence isn’t there anymore.”

Kumar Sanu added that nowadays, ‘8-10 singers record a song’ and no one knows which version will make it to the final cut of the film's album.