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 Armaan 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 so long because anybody can sing these days.
"Aspiring singers will stop putting efforts in learning music, ragas, classical music and others," he said.
Luv Sinha came running in support of his sister Sonakshi Sinha on her comment on ‘actors turning singers’.
He wrote a long Facebook post on Wednesday saying, “An actor that sings isn’t trying to steal a singers job. It’s like saying I’m trying to steal a photographer’s assignment because I enjoy taking photos or I’m going to direct because I understand film making. Maybe the two brothers who think they can criticise others should think about how they perform (Some singers are very good performers though!) when they try to display their “acting” skills in music videos or when they dance on stage.”
His stance slightly softened on Thursday in another Facebook post, “Let’s just say its two different perspectives. What Armaan feels is correct from his viewpoint and I don’t disagree entirely with what he said. Our legendary Singers SHOULD be given the best opportunities at music concerts (which I’m sure they will be) and actors should be allowed to perform (as they do at award shows) on stage as well.
If we start restricting performers though, then a film awards show would only have actors perform on stage, and singers would only provide their songs for the actor to lip sync to (even though music plays an exceptionally important role in our films and always should!), but we have a mix of both which is perfect.”
But that didn’t made any difference as composer-singer Amaal Malik came out in support of his brother. In a long Facebook post, Amaal criticised Sonakshi for unnecessarily “targeting” his brother saying the whole debate started when singer Kailash Kher expressed his views on actors turning singers.
“Armaan Malik only retweeted him (Kailash) saying it’s a sad state and musicians should be given the platform, and he did not tag or personally attack Sonakshi. What my mind fails to comprehend is why she is targeting Armaan alone, because obviously it’s easier to call him insecure than calling a senior Hindustani classical singer that,” Amaal wrote.
Amaal added he respected Sonakshi as an artiste but has lost “all of it” now. He also revealed Sinha was supposed to sing a track for him in her recently released film Noor. “... There’s nothing wrong in asking for one (a better artiste), we aren’t talking about ourselves. I’m sure we are a country with amazing musical prowess and I repeat, they must get a chance to showcase it on a stage like that,” he said.
Amaal also took pot-shots at Sonakshi’s brother Luv Sinha, who accused him for “stealing tunes”, by calling him “an uncouth idiot trying to get some desperate fame on a social platform”.
Playback singer Alka Yagnik, however disagrees with Armaan.
"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.
