Abhijeet Sawant talks about singers exploitation amid Arijit Singh's retirement: 'We accept whatever amount we get'

Abhijeet Sawant on Arijit Singh

Arijit Singh on 27th January announced his decision to retire from playback singing. His decision has sent shockwaves across the film and music industry, with composers, filmmakers, and fans expressing disbelief. Amid this, Abhijeet Sawant has opened up about the harsh realities of the Indian music industry, highlighting how playback singers are often underpaid and exploited.

Abhijeet Sawant on exploitation in music industry

Appearing on Pentarise Studios' YouTube channel, Abhijeet addressed, "People don't want the singers to become bigger than the film itself. That's why they are paid a certain amount. Musicians still don't receive royalties for film music. So Biddu, who worked on Lafzon Mein, also did a couple of songs in the West, and he gets so much royalty payment from those two songs that he can survive his whole life on that money. We don't even get enough money to sustain our livelihood."

The Indian Idol contestant also candidly spoke about how singers often compromise for fame, revealing the exploitation prevalent in the music industry. "They have created a system like that. Singers are themselves greedy for opportunities, and they know that ‘if this song gets released in my voice, with some big star lip-syncing, then I can use this song for my entire life.' Singers themselves don't want money, because they just want to sing the song or work with a certain producer. We accept whatever amount we get, because if we don't do it, someone else will. We get exploited a lot."

About Arijit Singh's retirement

In a long post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Arijit Singh shared the news about retiring as a playback vocalist. He said, "Hello, Happy New Year to all. I want to thank you for giving me so much of love all these years as listeners. I am happy to announce that I am not gonna be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey."

Despite retirement, Arijit's voice will be there in some of the films he has worked on. He collaborated with Salman Khan on Battle of Galwan. He has also lent his voice to O'Romeo, starring Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri. Arijit has collaborated with the composer duo Salim-Sulaiman for a brand-new single titled Into You. The peppy romantic number, which has been jointly crooned by Arijit and Ananya Sharma, has reached the audience ahead of Valentine's Day.