Sonu Nigam‘s vlog about favouritism in the music industry and the ‘music mafias’ has surely stirred a controversy within the fraternity. While he accused T-Series‘ Bhushan Kumar of defaming his image, Divya Khosla Kumar got back at him saying he was ‘thankless’. On the other hand, singers like Adnan Sami, Neha Bhasin and now, music composer Salim Merchant, have backed Sonu’s claims in his videos.
In a conversation with Hindustan Times, Salim says that it is not just the singers who have been having a tough time, but it is also the composers who have suffered because of these music labels favouring a few people over the rest.
Salim says that there is nothing wrong in what Sonu Nigam said and explains:
There are lot of composers like me, who don’t want to do just one song in the film. But there are others who are comfortable with the record labels terms and conditions and are okay to compose just one song in the film. Sonu Nigam has not said anything wrong. Whatever he has said is the truth. There are singers who gets called and they get dumped later on. There are so many directors who want to work with composers like ourselves, but when it reaches the record labels, they have their own conditions and they feel they cannot work with us.
He highlights how even though directors and producers of films want to work with composers like himself, it all comes down to the record label’s decision.
Speaking from his own personal experience, he even narrated an incident about how these politics affect their creative process. He talks about how once, Sulaiman and him had composed music for a film with a new director. They created some great music because of which they got a big actor on board. But when they approached the record company/production house, they were asked to change the composers. He says the record company has some ‘personal vendetta’ against them for reasons unknown.