'There can be no music without Arijit': Bollywood responds to singer’s retirement

Arijit Singh

There can be no music without Arijit Singh," an emotional Mohit Suri told mid-day, reacting to news that sent Indian music lovers into collective shock. On Tuesday night, in an Instagram post, the two-time National Award-winning singer announced his retirement from playback singing. "There is not one reason behind this. I have been trying to do this since a long time. Finally, I have gathered the right courage. One of the reasons were simple, I get bored pretty quick, that's why I keep changing arrangements of the same songs and perform them on stage," he wrote.

The voice that became an era

For more than a decade, Arijit was Bollywood's go-to guy for any track in any genre. When a film needed longing, his voice delivered it. When a love story or heartbreak had to feel intimate, his timbre did the work before the lyrics even began. By the mid-2010s, Bollywood leaned heavily on Arijit. Across Hindi and multiple regional industries - including Bengali, Marathi and Telugu - he has recorded over 800 songs, including alternate versions and live-session recordings. Few playback singers in recent decades have occupied that much sonic space.

Mohit Suri

His dominance carried serious commercial weight. Industry experts estimate his net worth in the range of R414 crore (roughly $50 million), built on recording fees, tours, streaming royalties and brand associations. Annual earnings reportedly touched R70 crore in recent years.

Days before announcing his exit, Arijit released Maatrubhumi for Salman Khan's Battle of Galwan. A stunned Himesh Reshammiya, who composed the song, told mid-day, "I have always said that Arijit Singh understands the soul of the music composer and the melody; he is fabulous. I wish he changes his stand on not singing for films, love him both as an artiste and a human being." While he may not take up fresh playback gigs, Arijit still has a few recorded songs lined up for 2026. One of them is Hum Toh Tere Hi Liye The from O'Romeo, composed by Vishal Bhardwaj with lyrics by Gulzar. Another is Sunhari Kirne from Gandhi Talks, composed by AR Rahman.

Mahesh Bhatt

While he might not be taking up any fresh playback gigs, Singh still has a few recorded songs set to release in 2026. One of them is Hum Toh Tere Hi Liye The from O'Romeo, composed by Vishal Bhardwaj with lyrics by Gulzar, a romantic track filmed on Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri. Another is "Sunhari Kirne" from Gandhi Talks, composed by A.R. Rahman, which is one of the year's most musically anticipated soundtracks.

Industry confronts a void

A top suit at Sony Music, tells mid-day, on condition of anonymity, "This changes the ground beneath us more than people realise. For years, when a film album came in and there was one song, the one the trailer would lean on the one streaming platforms would push and the first question in the room was always, ‘Can we get Arijit?' I speak for producers and insiders when I say there was built-in trust. People outside think this is just about replacing one voice with another. It's not that simple because that's a once-in-a-generation artist. He became the sound of modern Hindi film. When that disappears, you're filling a big void. And that's scary when crores are riding on streaming numbers. There's also habit to undo. Directors, actors, even lyricists were subconsciously writing for how his voice would feel. Without that anchor, the room will be quieter. Everyone second-guesses more. We'll discover new singers, of course. But it will be hard to replace that voice."

Himesh Reshammiya

Industry veterans understand Singh's decision. Mahesh Bhatt, with whom Singh did a large volume of his early work, told mid-day, "I remember the first time I saw Arijit Singh very clearly. It was at the music launch of Aashiqui 2 at Super Sound in Khar - the old place, full of dust, wires, and hope. His name was announced and he was called to the stage to sing Tum Hi Ho. A shy, self-effacing young man walked up, almost apologetically, with no sense of entitlement. He didn't claim the song; he offered it. And in that moment, something entered the bloodstream of the nation.

That song didn't just become popular, it became personal. What made Arijit Arijit was never just his voice. It was his refusal to perform himself. His singing carried no ego, no demand to be noticed. He stepped aside and let emotion speak. So when someone asks me if I would miss his voice, life has taught me to answer this way: I have learned to say goodbye to people I love without removing them from my heart. Chaplin once said something to that effect, and it has stayed with me. Even if Arijit chooses silence, his voice will not leave us. And I don't believe he is turning away from music - only from noise. If he sings only for himself now, that is not withdrawal. That is an artist exercising his deepest privilege. Voices like his don't vanish. They remain long after the song ends."

Inside the mind of a restless artist

Aashiqui 2 director Suri, with whose words we started, gave us an insight into his long-time collaborator's psyche. Singh first fame with the film he made and even in his last hit Saiyaara, Singh had a large role to play Suri tells us. "I don't remember a time when he wasn't creating something. Before playback, he was an assistant. In some early music sessions of my career, I remember Arijit clicking pictures of Pritam and me at the studio. He would spend a lot of money buying a expensive camera and then tell us, these pictures are for us to remember history. Of course, I am going to miss him a lot but that said, I also understand his decision.

Garima Wahal and Siddharth Singh

We all evolve as creative people in our journey and step up to find the next phase of our lives and careers. This isn't a man who will be content with himself. He has the itch of an artist. Anyone who has worked with him tell you he would give different iterations, will sit and understand the story of the film and fit his voice to suit the story. I remember during Humari Adhuri Kahani, we did three versions of the title track. He asked me how does it end and I told him, it ends tragically. He said there needs to be defeat in the voice then. He was such an important collaborator for any director or music composer. But even at that, he was still working on someone else's vision.

May be he wants to create his own vision for himself. He is also such an immensely secure artist, pure artist as they say. There have been times he has been called in to sing a song, he has heard the scratch and said, "Please retain what you have, I can't do what they've done." We did Saiyaara's songs across timezones - I was in Japan and he was in Murshidabad. But after the film, his response for the movie was such an honest take. He loved the film more than Aashiqui 2 which gave him his big break. He has evolved into an artist who values the art more than himself. Wherever he goes from here and whatever he does, he will create music because for the close to two decades I have known him, I have never known him without music. That bond will be inseparable."

Not an ending, but a reset

Of course, rumours are rife that Singh has moved to filmmaking and is currently shooting a movie in Shantiniketan that he and his wife Koel have written. The jungle-adventure project features Shora Siddiqui and Arijit's son, with Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Lyricists Siddharth-Garima, who have collaborated with Singh on several hit numbers, are working on his upcoming directorial. Garima tells mid day that they weren't shocked by Singh's decision. "We met him multiple times in the last one year.

We saw it coming because there is a very different kind of burnout that an artist can suffer from in the Hindi film industry," Garima says, adding that when an artiste is made to repeat his or her previous work, it takes a toll. "When people repetitively ask you to do the same things or sing similar things, it could get to you. We were seeing that point somewhere. He sings with a lot of sincerity even now. We've seen him record and he would take 100 takes for a line in a song. His process is something else. I'm sure that process tires him out. A burnout is very easy in this industry because you have to work tirelessly and endlessly."

To Garima, there's also an expectation from the industry that every song should be sung by Singh. He has enjoyed a monopoly of sorts in Bollywood playback singing for over 15 years now. But it's not something that the sits right with the singer himself/ "When Alia Bhatt just came in, everyone was thinking of scripts in which Alia would play the lead. That's how it is here. Everyone makes songs here, mostly thinking, ‘Arijit gaayega.'

The first time you make a really melodious number, you are already imagining how it would sound in Arijit's voice? But the kind of person that he is, he comes from a very just background. He's not the kind of person who will think, ‘Sirf main hi main hoon.' He thinks this shouldn't happen and there should be more people who should get a chance," Garima says, to which Siddharth adds that Singh is "a very secure artiste". "People talking about him creating a monopoly has never bothered him. In fact, that is a fuel. He's enabling diversity with this decision. We have that equation with him where we make him listen to every song that we record," the lyricist says.

Singh has lent his voice to several songs written by Siddharth-Garima, including the chartbusters Yeh Laal Ishq (Goliyon Ki Raas Leela: Ram Leela) and Satranga (Animal). Naturally, it's a huge loss for them as collaborators. "Sanjay Leela Bansali always says that he values a written word and believes a singer's job is to communicate to the listener the voice in those words. that voice. When I say, ‘Yeh laal ishq, yeh malaal ishq,' how does that line reach you? It's a singer's job entirely. And more often than not, we notice in recording rooms, singers are not really singing, not feeling the line enough. Arijit will take it to that point. That's what his contribution has been. He brings his own imagination to the song."

So, what does Hindi film music look like without his voice, we ask the duo. "The songs that he's already sung are there as his legacy. But the music scene in Bollywood would change. And it would be a huge change. Of course, it comes as a shock to many people. But I feel this is a natural progression. There's always space for new people. There won't be another Arijit but there will be more people, who will get a chance. People will start thinking imaginatively," she says. And this is something even Singh wants from the industry, shares the lyricist.

"What really irritates him is the fact that people are not thinking imaginatively enough. They are just relying on a set pattern that if we have Arijit, we will get X number of listeners. I think that has put him off from the entire scenario that oh, you want a guarantee hit song, you want him to sing that song. What about experimenting? What about thinking outside the box? It's great for an artiste to take a step back and take into account that what's happening around him is not okay. There was no reason for him to say that I'm not going to sing Bollywood songs anymore, but he's an extremely honest and honest person to have taken that step," Garima shares.

But even as fans express their disappointment over the singer's decision, Garima is sure Singh will make a comeback sometime in future. "I feel there will at some point be a comeback, like how Sonu (Nigam) ji was ruling the charts in the 90s. And then of course, there was a phase in which he faded out and then now he's back fully. So I feel before that would happen, Arijit has taken the wise call of saying, ‘Okay. Let me not create a monotony with my voice right now.' Let people yearn for it and then probably he'll make a comeback. I'm hoping he would someday," she smiles.

But there won't be dearth of Singh's music, as he is set to launch his own label. "He is going to keep making independent music. So we are going to hear him a lot more on, his own label and all of that. And not many people know but he is a very m good composer. We've written to some of his compositions. You will see him in a different light," Siddharth says.