Music profile: Babul Supriyo

Still in the Sidelines

Babul Supriyo has made huge life changes. He started our as a banker in Kolkata and is a popular playback singer in Bollywood today. Here he talks about how he views and his famous fallout with fellow singer Sonu Nigam.

Babul Supriyo is glad that his friendship with Sonu Nigam is over, done with and a closed chapter. On the same breath, he also says the feeling must be mutual. They are polar opposites in terms of personality and he is glad that he has put this friendship behind him. Full points to Babul for being so candid. Being candid does not endear him to some but he says it is impossible to please everyone and takes criticism in his stride. Full points for resilience too and one of the reasons for his success in Bollywood.

He was initially labeled as an upstart who was trying to imitate the great Kishore Kumar. Today, his voice is in great demand. Babul says that he simply sang the way music directors asked him to. Many times, he was simply filling in for a busy and popular singer. Since he could not afford to dictate terms, he bided his time. Many times, music directors and producers simply decide to re-record with another singer for various reasons. Keeping this in mind, Babul grabbed any opportunity that came his way and toed the line.

Babul had a huge hit in Hum Tum but seemed to fade away after that. Did he not capitalize on his success? He admits that his popularity did not skyrocket after Hum Tum. While he had many good numbers in Hum Tum, most were overshadowed by more trendy songs that appealed to the popular imagination at the time. Still, he was not completely sidelined and has lent his voice to many good forthcoming numbers which he hopes will top the charts. The same fate seems to do his pop album Kuuch Aisa Lagtaa Hai. While it has not done well commercially, Babul insists that he is completely satisfied with the quality of his album.

He admits that he admired Adnan Sami's Kabhie To Nazar Milao and Sonu Nigam's Deewana in which the albums were high on quality and on popularity charts as well.

In spite of having good songs and experience behind him, he has not been as successful as, say, Himesh Reshammiya, who shot to fame in a fairly short span of time. Babul points out that Himeshji is an exceptionally talented singer-composer and that he also has T-series' marketing to back him up. The fact that Himeshji is also a music composer helps greatly. Very often, a singer's popularity depends largely on how music composers exploit that talent. Without a good music composer, even the most talented singer can fail, he philosophizes.

His personal life has been rocky of late with Babul filing for divorce. He blames the end of his 11-year marriage on marrying very young. Eventually, he says, his wife Riaa and he just grew up into very different people. He shares custody of his daughter, Sharmilee. On the one hand, he insists that he believes in love and marriage; a minute later, he declares that all who claim to be happily married must be lying; that love is temporary but lust is permanent. It is obvious that Babul is going through the phase of accepting his divorced state and his disillusionment with the institution of marriage is not unnatural.

In the end, all he wants to do is to continue singing. That, he says, will remain the first love of his life.