MUMBAI: Armaan Malik, a Bollywood musician, addressed the politics he has witnessed in the industry and stated that he has attempted to leave the profession for a variety of reasons.
According to Armaan, singers in the Bollywood industry are not paid for their work, which he considers unjust, and they are frequently replaced on projects for unspecified reasons.
In a recent interview, the 'Bol Do Na Zara' singer opened out about the film industry politics he has experienced. He stated that it is well known that singers are not paid to perform in films. Not only that, but he revealed that he was replaced after crooning a certain song not once, but several times.
Armaan claimed that being replaced several times had left him scarred, prompting him to give up and concentrate on his own music. He detoxed in New Zealand for several months.He asserted, “That phase, where I was being replaced, I thought, ‘To hell with this s**t’.”
Malik elaborated and said, “There was a phase where I was replaced in quite a few songs in Bollywood, which scarred me, in a way. I was like, ‘Am I not a good singer?’ And I can’t let that happen to me. I’m very sure of how I am as a singer. But it’s the circumstances… If I’m replaced because I’ve not sung the song well, I’ll accept that. But if I’m replaced because of certain factors or politics, that’s unacceptable. That happened so much to me, and still does, I’ll be frank. I moved on from that.”
The singer further said, “Singers don’t get paid to sing in movie songs. Obviously, you do certain things for the love of music, but there’s also a monetary motivation… At the end of the day, think of it as a job… It’s crazy that as singers, we don’t get to see that. We are so used to this (not being paid) that it is not even a conversation.
He also highlighted that streaming revenue is distributed to labels rather than songwriters or performers, which is a little-known truth among the general public.
Armaan Malik went on to make a shocking revelation. He revealed, singers don’t get paid to sing in movie songs. “You do certain things for the love of music, but there’s also a monetary motivation… At the end of the day, think of it as a job… It’s crazy that as singers, we don’t get to see that. We are so used to this (not being paid) that it is not even a conversation. They feel if the song is a hit, the singers will earn through live shows. There’s no conversation. It’s just like, ‘Are you free to come to the studio?’ We come, we sing the song, and the next day you find out someone else has sung the song.
Armaan Malik continued by stating that even composers are not always paid. The labels receive the streaming revenue.“This could be a story that we’re uncovering here, but not many people know this, the general public doesn’t know that their favourite artists are not being paid,” said Armaan Malik.
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