Playback singer Shaan has shared an interesting anecdote about the legendary multi-hyphenate Kishore Kumar. Shaan, who recently dedicated a curated show to the late singer-actor, spoke with IANS at his office in the Khar area of Mumbai, and shared that Kishore Kumar once sang 2 Bhojpuri songs for his father, Manas Mukherjee, for INR 3000.
Shaan told IANS, “My father was a composer, Kishore da once sent a message to my father saying, ‘What happened, why are we not working together? You don't want me to sing for you?’ My father told him, ‘I don't have much work as of now except for a Bhojpuri film’.
Kishore da told him, ‘I'll do it for you’. He took INR 3000 and sang not one but two Bhojpuri songs for my father”. He further mentioned, “An artiste or any other human being for that matter is an emotional person.
Of course, you want to value your art when I know I am being under valued, I’ll stand my ground as an artiste. Kishore da used to charge INR 50,000 for a song. Back then it was an unheard amount for a singer and he used to get that money.
In current times, singers charge close to INR 1 crore and they get it but if the same artiste feels that they can sing for a lesser amount they will definitely go for it”. Earlier, Shaan had shared his opinion on the longevity of the songs in the current era of Hindi music.
He said that bad songs are always present in every era, and it’s not like that overall music is bad currently. He said that composers are still making good songs, and singers are giving their voice to those songs.
He told IANS, “I have sung close to 3,000 songs or more. How many of my songs do you remember? How long have they lived? 10%, 15% at the most. So, that's just how it is. Some songs will be filtered out, some songs are generally bad, so nothing could be done about that.
They were made then, they are made now, and they will continue to be made in the future”. He said that after the arrival of smartphones, the consuming habits of listeners have immensely changed. He said that social media, and smartphones have diminished the attention span of the audience, as everything is so fast, and hyper-connected.