Arjun Kanungo: After a songs becomes a hit, music labels tell us replicate it, which is insulting

Recently, singer Arjun Kanungo tweeted in support of singer Amaal Mallik’s decision to cut down on film music and focus on independent music, saying “non-film is the future”. Now, Kanungo reveals that there are times when the trappings to replicate a hit formula turns insulting for a musician.

Last week, Amaal initiated a conversation in the music world following his tweet revealing that the reasons for his diminishing film work are varied, from not agreeing to do remixes to refusing to be a yes-man and be powerful people’s “puppets”.

In a series of tweets, he also highlighted the roadblocks for his regular film work. Reacting to one such tweet, Kanungo wrote, “Non film is the future. If musicians stick together people won’t be able to bully us. Alas, there is always someone ready to bend to the demands of people in power. If you want to be happy, remain independent”.

And it was not his personal bond with Amaal that pushed him to join the conversation, but the relevance of the subject. “I don’t know what pushed me. We know each other, but are not very good friends. I am better friends with his brother Armaan. In fact, I was surprised to see the tweets as I didn’t know that Amaal is doing non-film music. He has always been known for film music,” Kanungo tells us.

The 32-year-old adds, “He was right in saying that he might do five or six less songs, but those are songs he believes in. I was happy to see him sticking to his guns, that he will not bow to anybody.”

Here, the singer asserts that a lot of people in the industry misjudge this attitude as arrogance.

“People wrongly take this as arrogance. It is the only we know what we go through in this industry. We put up with so many unfair things. We only know what we are subjected to. After a point, every musician is like ‘Dude, I don’t want to deal with this. I want to be a good musician, and I want to focus on my music and not follow every trend’,” he says.

Opening up about the state of affairs, he says, “Every time a hit song comes, every producer and label is like, ‘Humme aisa bana kar do’. And that is so insulting as a musician. Are you coming to me because you want a hit or are coming to me because of me? There are thousands of other musicians who are willing to take that job, but you have come to me because you want to use my name. It is not because anybody else can’t make the song. It’s because you want to use my name, and you want to have a hit song… I don’t believe in this trend that’s happening right now. If you try to follow a trend, you will always be late.”

All through his journey, Kanungo, the man behind songs such as Aaya Na Tu, Baaki Baatein Peene Baad and Waada Hai, has always maintained his distance from Bollywood music, with a special focus on non-film music.

“I have been completely focused on non film music. I only do film music when I feel like it. I never asked for it and when people give it to me, sometimes I say no, because it doesn’t interest me. But that is a very tricky decision for people to make. Because people who are trying to make it in this industry don’t really have any power when they start… It is very difficult to build a name so they do whatever the producers/labels ask them to do,” he says.

Here, he asserts that established musicians have a bigger role to play and pave the wav for change.

“The established musicians, who have already made a name for themselves, don’t have to bow down to the pressure anymore. They should try to make things better for themselves rather than bending to demands…. For new musicians, soon there will be a time when they will be given more opportunities to do non-film music,” ends the singer, who is working on supporting new artists through his label.