Acclaimed composer Salim Merchant opened up about celebrated singer and composer Arijit Singh announcing his retirement from playback. During an exclusive conversation with IANS, Salim revealed that he is not surprised by Arjit's decision, as a lot of composers, singers, and other members of the music industry have been shifting their focus from film music.
He revealed that he himself has not composed for a movie in the last 6 years, ever since he came to the realization during COVID that film music is not giving him happiness. When asked to react to Arjit's announcement of not taking any more work as a playback singer, Salim told IANS, "I am not surprised at all.
This had to happen, and this will happen to everyone. I have also stopped making film music almost 6 years ago. If you ask me about my last movie, I would say it was "102 Not Out", which starred Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan. It was the last film I did music for."
He added that despite being more focused on independent music, none of the composers and singers have released a public statement like Arijit that they will not be doing film music. However, Salim expressed his confidence that Arijit will continue to come up with some amazing tunes in the future.
"Music is a very big field, of which playback is a very small part, so I don't think there is anything wrong with this. Arijit, I am sure, will still make a lot of music, maybe not for a movie, but he will surely do independent music," he added. The composer further pointed out that although film music is great, a lot of music-based movies are not being made at the moment.