It started with a Twitter face-off between actress Sonakshi Sinha and singer Armaan Malik with the latter vehemently opposing the idea of actors singing for themselves on screen. But now the issue has acquired far-reaching ramifications.
He said: “It takes years and years of devotion to be able to sing and pursue music to reach a professional level. Leave music and singing, any art for that matter requires that. Millions of singers are finding opportunities to work. Imagine how crushed they would feel when they see non-singers getting that chance?!”
So is Malik calling the stars-turned-singers non singers?
“All I believe in is putting the truth out there. When these actors sing their own songs the average middle class movie-going public thinks, ‘If they can sing, we can also sing’. The standard of music and singing in our cinema has fallen [for] so long because anybody can sing these days.
“Aspiring singers will stop putting efforts in learning music, ragas, classical music and others,” he said.
Playback singer Alka Yagnik, however, disagrees with Malik.
“Why not? Why shouldn’t actors sing? In any case anybody can be made to sound like a singer these days, what with the help of advanced technology like auto-tuning,” said Yagnik.
Ace composer Amit Trivedi agrees with Yagnik.
“As long as the actors sing really well, it’s all really good. I don’t have a problem with actors singing. Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh have sung for me,” he said.
