By Natalia Ningthoujam
New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS) It was just last week that popular singer Sonu Nigam grabbed eyeballs by talking about the evolution of the music business and the business strategy of music companies. But he says that he has no intention of opening a music company as it's not easy to run it.
Last week, after his comments on the current music scenario in India, he posted on Facebook: "My point about being better off being born in Pakistan was about the music companies in India asking Indian singers to pay 40-50 per cent of their concert remunerations to them, and only then they'll work with those artistes.. but they don't ask the same from the singers from abroad, namely Pakistan."
Asked if he would like to start his own music company, Sonu told IANS in a recorded response: "It's not easy to run a music company. It is very difficult to make a music company big. So, we respect all the people who run music companies as much as everyone should respect everyone's professions.
"Actors should respect directors, directors should respect producers, singers should respect composers. Music companies should also respect everybody else. It's a world of interdependence. At this point, I don't plan to open any music company but yes, in my entire life without being in a music company, I have supported a lot of new singers...not because I wanted to become an 'ustad' or a godfather but because I felt their talent needed to be brought in front like Sunidhi Chauhan and many more."
The National Award winner recently collaborated with fellow music artiste Kumar Sanu's daughters -- Shannon K, also a singer, and Annabel, a lyricist.
"At this point, there are a lot of singers who would probably want to do singles with me or work with me. I definitely want to be by their side. Comparatively they are new, but they are my friends...Meet Bros, we just did a song called 'Totta' which is doing stupendously well.
"I also did 'Aye zindagi' composed by Vishal Mishra... another young talent. So, yeah we are doing lots of good work," shared the "Abhi Mujh mein kahin" hitmaker.
Music lovers of India have been repeating his tunes since 1990s, thanks to his hit songs like "Kal ho naa ho", "Deewana tera" and "Yeh dil deewana".
Apart from building a strong fan base in India and abroad through his songs, he has also been collaborating with various international artistes, including Grammy award winning producer-engineer Jason Goldstein and American rapper MC Yogi for "Hall of fame", and Indo-American DJ-record producer KSHMR for "Underwater".
"I have been lucky. I have done a couple of them (collaborations with international artistes). They all have been received very well by connoisseurs but yeah, music is music.
"I give as much respect to songs in languages like Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Haryanvi, Manipuri...I have sung in all these languages. I have respect for all these languages too. A song is a song. It should be respected anyways," he said.
(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)
