JOIN USWhile singing has been their passion and gave them an identity, it has also proved to be an entry ticket for acting in Bollywood. Several contemporary playback singers who have made it large in music have been trying their luck in acting too.
The most recent to join this league is the Jai Ho and Chaiyan Chaiyan star, Sukhwinder Singh. The movie Khudi Ko Kar Buland Itna stars Sukhwinder in the lead. “Acting was never planned for me. This movie just happened. Acting is not what I would choose over singing. You will never see me acting again.”
However, many other singing sensations, bitten by the acting bug have remained unsuccessful in making their mark as actors. Take Sonu Nigam for instance, who has done films like Jaani Dushman, Love in Nepal, Kaash Aap Humare Hotey all of which have been some of the biggest flops. When Love in Nepal released, Sonu had commented that he had no hopes for the movie.
In the case of Kaash... he had said, “I went through the worst possible circumstance after. I had lots of hopes from that film. I made wrong decisions. I am not dying to be an actor. I make more money singing for a month than I do for a whole acting assignment. But I blame myself. I overruled the suggestions of people like Ram Gopal Varma, Ramesh Taurani and Akash Deep who advised me not to do the films I did.”
To be able to sing is a blessing in disguise for those seeking a career in playback singing, a field in which Bollywood provides ample opportunity. Though the same can open doors in acting too, but for some reason, today’s singers have been uniformly bad actors. Not many singers have made the cut successfully. Meet Himesh, Mika and Atif - are just a few of them.
Though why they would want to be distracted from their first love, is food for thought. For not everybody is as gifted as K L Saigal, Suraiya or much later the most beloved of all, Kishore Kumar who could hold the their own - both in acting and singing. In some cases, multi-tasking is not a good idea at all.
Corrigendum
On front page of Metrolife dated 16 May, we have inadvertently carried a photo of a woman pilot with the caption: ‘New High, Indian women are taking up flying as their hobby’ The pilot in picture is the woman pilot Ms Hiyam Afeef from Maldives. We have learnt that the photo maybe subject to copyright. We regret using the picture without permission.