Sunidhi Chauhan opens up on the impact of international acts coming to India, our music infrastructure, her journey as a pop star and resurgence of ’90s singers
This year, many international artistes like Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Bryan Adams and Maroon 5 came to India to perform. While their presence marks a level up for the Indian music scene, singer Sunidhi Chauhan, who recently released her song Aankh and is currently touring, believes it makes things all the more challenging for Indian artistes.
“Their appearance helps as you want to get that experience. But it has also made things more difficult for Indian acts because now we have to live up to those kinds of expectations. Now we can’t use this reason that those are international acts as the playing ground has become the same. We have to be at par with them. You will have to put in a lot more because now the comparisons will be direct. To get the same reaction, you will have to do more,” she says.
Many artistes in recent times including singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh and singer Monali Thakur have criticised the infrastructure for live shows in India. However, Sunidhi Chauhan looks at the opportunity to improve: “The potential to improve is immense here as there is ample money to invest. But you can’t hide or escape anymore. You will have to up your game. I want to go to an Indian artiste’s concert and say, ‘ab mujhe aur kuch nahi chahiye’.”
In the recent time, Sunidhi has emerged as an Indian pop icon with her performances at her live shows. Mention that she is one of the first Indian artistes to go on that level and she says, “I never went ahead into doing anything with the idea of starting something new. For me, my to-go popstars are still (singers) Alisha Chinai, Remo Fernandes, Colonial Cousins and Shweta Shetty. The pop scene was lost a bit in the middle because film music became bigger, but thanks to social media, non-film music has an audience. I have also just started in this scene. I have done more film songs only, but how I perform those songs on stage is pop for people. When they see me perform them, they don’t think of the actor it was picturised on because it sounds different and looks different.”
In the last two years, there has been a resurgence of the artistes prevalent in the ‘90s and early 2000s in the mainstream music scene, including singers Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam among others. Commenting on that, Sunidhi says, “It makes you feel very good and why the audience feel that connect is because they have seen us grow as an artiste in the industry. They have seen us improve our skills and spread our wings. That’s the connection you feel as apnapan lagta hai. I feel happy that the audience feels extreme joy on hearing us again because it’s like us coming back too.”
Her song Sajna Ve Sajna was recently recreated for Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, and she informs that her original recording was used for the remake: “I was just happy to know that kuch log aise hain jo samajhte hain is baat ko ki kuch cheezein jaisi hain, unhe waise hi chod do. Mat chedo usko khaamakhaan, unless you are too sure, and you have clarity.”
