FOR SONU FANS : I was myself a fan. This blog in not Anti-Sonu, this blog is about a perspective as an Indian and as a supporter
I am not a big Sonu Niigaam Fan. I don't hate him either. I love him as a singer, his technique... somewhat was never impressed with the tone (as an audience, not as a singer). Sonu's songs for me are from Deewana and Jaan, the non-film songs that never becomes as popular as film music in India. He had his share of his good songs and bad songs, for which he gave his 100%. There was a trend in music directors at a time when they used to give him only sad songs to sing. He fought it and came out of it. He sang masterpieces like Kal Ho Na Ho, Satarangi Re and a lot more. I love those songs, but not as much as I love songs from Deewana and Jaan where Sonu sounds more free, more touching and non-monotonous.
Recently the industry had a buzz of why Sonu Niigaam aint singing songs as much as before. The supporters of Sonu claimed that he is taking only selected and good projects while the other side claimed some other reasons which I don't feel like mentioning here. Somewhat things seemed uncomfortable, strange and weird in last 2 years. There were wrong PR and other movies which seemed to have a very short-term vision. Suddenly a Sonu Niigaam that I admired got me worried. I myself faced an ego clash during the Michael Jackson Tribute project, and I never know if it was he himself or some of his assistants who did things in his name. It seemed like I am looking at the life of a celebrity in the 3rd phase where we hear history telling us, a time when they only want people saying 'YES' or 'GOOD' around them. Criticism wasn't easily accepted and there was a feeling for the person to be very high, closer to God than any of the people they knew. With people calling him GOD this can ruin things more!
Aamir and Sonu both are fighting for royalty rights for artists lately. A move, an action that should be supported, loved and respected by all artists in India. This fight will help save ourselves from the death that yesterdays stars suffered due to lack of business knowledge. If artists put in their 100% for a project they should be paid royalties as well. There needs to be a strong forum, strong community to tackle this problem. Unfortunately, Sonu or Aamir can't afford to go on a strike with a few supporters. I say few, because though the support is very large and strong, many might look this as an opportunity to jump into the vacant places. I was happy that India was changing. Like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan said in his blog, if all goes well many of todays celebrities will end up ending more money than they did in their lifetime just like Elvis and Michael Jackson. These celebrities had a strong PR that made them so famous, a PR that was funded from their incomes which hugely was from royalties and not signing-amounts.
Recently Sonu posted this blog - http://www.facebook.com/notes/sonu-niigaam/wake-up-india-from-the-slumber/372952231095 on his facebook fanpage. It goes as below
All the producers, director, composers, lyrics writers present in the meeting, are witness to the fact that I never spoke about singers to get 25% Royalties. That's a misquote by the media. Its the composers and lyrics writer's royalties that are confiscated by the music companies 100%, and all we all were proposing was a fair split where in the producer being the funder, gets 50% and rest 50% split between the composers and the lyrics writers! How much more fair anyone wants us to get when in the rest of the world, 100% goes to the composers and lyrics writers.!! We are not even discussing singers at this point.!
My favorite actor, whom I consider like my spiritual elder brother, who is known to be fair generally,.. just proposed to someone secretively, “forget it....give these guys 1%.....“ What a magnanimous contribution!! My favorite actor!!!! Wow!! God bless all of them. I have anyways decided to live outside this country, a country that is too shy to give its artistes, their dues doesn't deserve purists like myself!. No wonder Ravishankarji, Zakirbhai, etc live abroad. I only feel bad for the future artistes, who will have to be subjected to this feudalistic arm twisting, if proper amendments are not made now. And the people who treat music as prayer and not a glamour driven activity.. Wake up India from the slumber!!
Love,
Sonu Niigaam
_______________
After reading this blog I suddenly lost my respect for this great personality who was fighting for us artists, gave so many beautiful songs to us. Thats why I titled this blog "TO LOVE OR NOT TO". His last paragraph disturbed me a lot. Not just as an Indian, but as a person who supported this man. If he calls this a war against an unfair practice, what does he mean to say?? Is he running away scared or he wants to fight a war from a palace? The country is not shy to give the artists their share otherwise no one would have thronged in thousands to their concerts. With such a stupid statement and move I don't think the motive and passion for the cause by Sonu makes any sense. Maybe he is only thinking about his own pockets and if he can't fill them well like he wants, he will move out. I feel he better shift out then. He is doing a M.F.Hussain. India is large and populated enough to produce artists to feel the vacancy.
My view is simple - If SONU NIIGAAM is fighting a good cause for all the music fraternity in India. But why should India also pay royalties to an artist who anyway is going to live outside the country? Seeking sympathy and pity like this and then running away from one's country is not a virtue of a person whom people idolize. I choose to love Sonu NIGAM, but I choose not to love this Sonu NIIGAAM. The highlight of the LAST-NAME SPELLING CHANGE also indicates a deep metaphor as living outside a country.
If as an audience I have a right to love a person, I also have the right to hate him for something that can be more important. I have no personal relation with Sonu that I loved as a singer, so I don't want to comment on his personal life. But I do have the right to talk about his public views and image and feel compelled to just know him as Mr. Niigaam who resembles a singer I loved. A singer who sarcastically talks about his favorite actor whom he supposedly considers like his SPIRITUAL ELDER BROTHER. Shame on me, Shame on him... that an admirer reached to a state of questioning himself - To Love or not to love a person like this! I am an Indian, I was never sleeping on Royalty issues maybe because I am not a successful artist yet. But yes... Thanks to Mr. Niigaam for waking me up from a slumber with a dream of admiring a person I thought of to be someone else. I think its time to act and understand, a time for political leaders understand & kick out pessimist anti-Indian thoughts instead of creating fights within India.
I am not a big Sonu Niigaam Fan. I don't hate him either. I love him as a singer, his technique... somewhat was never impressed with the tone (as an audience, not as a singer). Sonu's songs for me are from Deewana and Jaan, the non-film songs that never becomes as popular as film music in India. He had his share of his good songs and bad songs, for which he gave his 100%. There was a trend in music directors at a time when they used to give him only sad songs to sing. He fought it and came out of it. He sang masterpieces like Kal Ho Na Ho, Satarangi Re and a lot more. I love those songs, but not as much as I love songs from Deewana and Jaan where Sonu sounds more free, more touching and non-monotonous.
Recently the industry had a buzz of why Sonu Niigaam aint singing songs as much as before. The supporters of Sonu claimed that he is taking only selected and good projects while the other side claimed some other reasons which I don't feel like mentioning here. Somewhat things seemed uncomfortable, strange and weird in last 2 years. There were wrong PR and other movies which seemed to have a very short-term vision. Suddenly a Sonu Niigaam that I admired got me worried. I myself faced an ego clash during the Michael Jackson Tribute project, and I never know if it was he himself or some of his assistants who did things in his name. It seemed like I am looking at the life of a celebrity in the 3rd phase where we hear history telling us, a time when they only want people saying 'YES' or 'GOOD' around them. Criticism wasn't easily accepted and there was a feeling for the person to be very high, closer to God than any of the people they knew. With people calling him GOD this can ruin things more!
Aamir and Sonu both are fighting for royalty rights for artists lately. A move, an action that should be supported, loved and respected by all artists in India. This fight will help save ourselves from the death that yesterdays stars suffered due to lack of business knowledge. If artists put in their 100% for a project they should be paid royalties as well. There needs to be a strong forum, strong community to tackle this problem. Unfortunately, Sonu or Aamir can't afford to go on a strike with a few supporters. I say few, because though the support is very large and strong, many might look this as an opportunity to jump into the vacant places. I was happy that India was changing. Like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan said in his blog, if all goes well many of todays celebrities will end up ending more money than they did in their lifetime just like Elvis and Michael Jackson. These celebrities had a strong PR that made them so famous, a PR that was funded from their incomes which hugely was from royalties and not signing-amounts.
Recently Sonu posted this blog - http://www.facebook.com/notes/sonu-niigaam/wake-up-india-from-the-slumber/372952231095 on his facebook fanpage. It goes as below
All the producers, director, composers, lyrics writers present in the meeting, are witness to the fact that I never spoke about singers to get 25% Royalties. That's a misquote by the media. Its the composers and lyrics writer's royalties that are confiscated by the music companies 100%, and all we all were proposing was a fair split where in the producer being the funder, gets 50% and rest 50% split between the composers and the lyrics writers! How much more fair anyone wants us to get when in the rest of the world, 100% goes to the composers and lyrics writers.!! We are not even discussing singers at this point.!
My favorite actor, whom I consider like my spiritual elder brother, who is known to be fair generally,.. just proposed to someone secretively, “forget it....give these guys 1%.....“ What a magnanimous contribution!! My favorite actor!!!! Wow!! God bless all of them. I have anyways decided to live outside this country, a country that is too shy to give its artistes, their dues doesn't deserve purists like myself!. No wonder Ravishankarji, Zakirbhai, etc live abroad. I only feel bad for the future artistes, who will have to be subjected to this feudalistic arm twisting, if proper amendments are not made now. And the people who treat music as prayer and not a glamour driven activity.. Wake up India from the slumber!!
Love,
Sonu Niigaam
_______________
After reading this blog I suddenly lost my respect for this great personality who was fighting for us artists, gave so many beautiful songs to us. Thats why I titled this blog "TO LOVE OR NOT TO". His last paragraph disturbed me a lot. Not just as an Indian, but as a person who supported this man. If he calls this a war against an unfair practice, what does he mean to say?? Is he running away scared or he wants to fight a war from a palace? The country is not shy to give the artists their share otherwise no one would have thronged in thousands to their concerts. With such a stupid statement and move I don't think the motive and passion for the cause by Sonu makes any sense. Maybe he is only thinking about his own pockets and if he can't fill them well like he wants, he will move out. I feel he better shift out then. He is doing a M.F.Hussain. India is large and populated enough to produce artists to feel the vacancy.
My view is simple - If SONU NIIGAAM is fighting a good cause for all the music fraternity in India. But why should India also pay royalties to an artist who anyway is going to live outside the country? Seeking sympathy and pity like this and then running away from one's country is not a virtue of a person whom people idolize. I choose to love Sonu NIGAM, but I choose not to love this Sonu NIIGAAM. The highlight of the LAST-NAME SPELLING CHANGE also indicates a deep metaphor as living outside a country.
If as an audience I have a right to love a person, I also have the right to hate him for something that can be more important. I have no personal relation with Sonu that I loved as a singer, so I don't want to comment on his personal life. But I do have the right to talk about his public views and image and feel compelled to just know him as Mr. Niigaam who resembles a singer I loved. A singer who sarcastically talks about his favorite actor whom he supposedly considers like his SPIRITUAL ELDER BROTHER. Shame on me, Shame on him... that an admirer reached to a state of questioning himself - To Love or not to love a person like this! I am an Indian, I was never sleeping on Royalty issues maybe because I am not a successful artist yet. But yes... Thanks to Mr. Niigaam for waking me up from a slumber with a dream of admiring a person I thought of to be someone else. I think its time to act and understand, a time for political leaders understand & kick out pessimist anti-Indian thoughts instead of creating fights within India.
1 comment:
Nice article. But remember that every human has a breaking point. Sonu reached his. You simply can't convince the producers in India. Arm twisting tactics shouldn't have to be employed in the first place and would also never work. In every other part of the world, composers/lyricists get royalties. This ensures that if you aren't famous and don't have a reliable paycheck, royalties would ensure that you sail smooth. But in India, there are many guys who have come to the streets. Producers have the last laugh and this doesn't happen anywhere but in India. So don't jump the gun yet bro'. Remember we all have a breaking point :-)
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