Bollywood's heartthrobs turn singers

Bollywood has got a whole new posse of singers — its A-list actors. These include Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Farhan Aktar and Neil Nitin Mukesh.

Akshay Kumar discovered singing while performing at award shows. He will debut as a singer alongside international rap artist Snoop Dogg in his upcoming film, Singh Is Kinng. Thrilled at having performed with a rapper of Snoop Dogg’s calibre, Akshay had no qualms admitting, “I like singing, but I know I am not a great singer.”

That is one issue Neil Nitin Mukesh won’t have to face. “Singing is in my genes,” he said. “For me, singing in Freeze is like a tribute to my grandfather Mukesh, to Kishoreda and Mohammed Rafi.” The actor plans to revive some old tunes that he has composed, with some help from music director Pritam.

“I will put forward my compositions and ideas to him, and together we will plan the theme song of the movie. We will try to make it really peppy,” added Neil.

Farhan Akhtar debuts as both actor and singer in Rock On. “I loved my role in the film. I had always dreamt of doing something like this,” said Farhan. He sings four songs in the film. “I tried out my singing and felt that it was turning out well,” said the director of Dil Chahta Hai and Don.

Another actor who will lend his voice to... himself, is John Abraham. John’s first tryst with the microphone happened when he sang the number Ab Hai Ujala —from his forthcoming release Aashayein — with Pakistani rock band Strings at the launch of their latest album, Koi Aanewala Hai. Said John, “I was hesitant initially, but I liked the idea. I am not that great a singer but that’s alright, I guess. I will make a sincere effort.”

Some of Bollywood’s bigshots — Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and Govinda — have already sung in films, but are repeating the experience after a gap of years. Sanjay will sing for the film C KKompany. “I will be introducing the characters of the film through a song. I am doing this on the request of my friends Anand Raj Anand and Ramesh Sippy,” said Sanjay.

Govinda has recently finished recording a song — Heeng lage na fitkari rang chokhkha hoy — for the film Loot.
Bachchan Junior, who had a hit with Right Here Right Now in Bluffmaster, is more than excited. After singing with Wyclef Jean in Miami for Karan Johar’s Dostana, he’s now doing a full hip-hop album with Vishal-Shekhar.

“Aadesh Shrivastava requested me to be a part of the song. Wyclef Jean is a musician whom I have admired for a long time. It was a treat to record with the two of them,” said Abhishek.

And the latest actor to join the bunch is Anupam Kher. The actor, who plays the title role in Mr Bhatti on Chhutti will collaborate with Sidharth and Suhas to sing the rap parts of a song titled Bhatti’s gonna get you.