Bhanu Pratap turned composer after his voice got replaced by Arijit Singh’s in Kedarnath

The ongoing pandemic, his song getting replaced overnight and the quest to prove his mettle, triggered Udta Punjab and Manmarziyaan title track singer Bhanu Pratap Singh to turn into a music composer.

“I got to sing this song Jaan Nisaar for the film Kedarnath (2018) but barely a week before the release it was replaced by other singer’s voice (Arijit Singh), probably due to commercial reasons. I was left heartbroken. Also, there were other reasons that I lost my father and then the pandemic struck. So, it was time to take a step ahead and I decided to dabble into composing along with singing,” shares the singer on his recent visit to Agra and Lucknow.

“Pandemic has been a tough phase but it taught that we have power to shape our lives. We have seen so many new avenues coming up and people are readily taking chances. So, I too thought that instead of just reaching out to others for work the need of the hour was to create opportunities for myself,” he says.

In between Singh was able to release a single that worked in his favour. “My cover song Yeh Dil Tum Bin gave me another level of recognition and acceptance. It was released four years back but it went viral fetching over 25 million views. The cover song became bigger them many of my film songs. I have worked throughout the pandemic and now I have many projects lined-up. Today, turning a composer has broadened my vision as a singer. I am doing three films, including The Virgin Tree starring Palak Tiwari and Sunny Singh. Besides, I am doing independent songs and for music labels as well.”

Telling us more about his journey, Singh says, “I was top 8 finalist at India Idol 4 (2008). Then the real struggle started where I was working for small production house. Somehow, my voice reached composers Ehsan-Loy who gave me a chance to perform original composition Zamana Kharab Hai on Coke Studio (2012) which helped me shed that contestant tag and become a singer. It was a turning point.”

It helped him make his playback debut. “Music composer Amit Trivedi gave me my first song Chitta Ve, the title track for Udta Punjab (2016). He again gave me Jaise Teri Marzi (2018), another title track with Harshdeep Kaur,” he concludes.