Sunidhi Chauhan says a music director once told her that her singing is ‘like a man’s voice on an actress’

Sunidhi Chauhan said that she was asked to pack her bags and go home by two prominent music directors. She collaborated with them later and they seemed to have ‘memory loss’ about their initial comments about her.

Singer Sunidhi Chauhan has said that she was told by two prominent music directors that she should ‘pack (her) bags and go home’. Once she achieved success, they approached her to sing for them.

Sunidhi Chauhan has been a Bollywood playback singer for over two decades.

In an interview, Sunidhi said that one of the composers felt her voice was masculine. However, they seemed to forget this criticism when they later worked with her.

Talking to Bollywood Bubble, Sunidhi said, “In the initial stage of my career, I did get to hear things like, ‘You should pack your bags and go home because you cannot sing Lag Jaa Gale in the original key.’”

Sunidhi went to a ‘very big music director’ and he asked her to sing Lag Jaa Gale for him. She sang in a lower key than it was sung by Lata Mangeshkar, and the music director asked her to go higher. On telling him that she could not hit those notes, he told her, “Beta, tum na riyaaz kar ke aao (Go home and practice).”

“Then another music director told me, ‘This kind of voice is not going to work, you have too strong a voice. It sounds like a man’s voice on an actress. Pack your bags. Abhi ek-do saal ki baat hai (It is just a matter of one or two years), then you go home,’” she added.

Sunidhi, who is popular for songs such as Dhoom Machale, Chhaliya, Kaisi Paheli and Sheila Ki Jawani, revealed that she collaborated with both music directors later but they seemed to have ‘memory loss’ about their initial criticism of her.

Apart from playback singing, Sunidhi has judged music reality shows on television as well. She was a judge on earlier seasons of Indian Idol. Most recently, she was seen as a judge on the shows The Remix and Dil Hai Hindustani (Season 2).