Sonu Nigam on his acting stint, from Jaani Dushman to Love in Nepal: ‘People appreciate that I didn’t sign more films’

Sonu released two albums in 1997, until he struck gold with Kismat in 1998, in which he even made an appearance. His “Tu” raised him to the pedestal of a singer who had the good looks to impress even when on camera. Topping it all was his dance prowess and ease at emoting the lyrics of his songs. He gave more chartbusters in his next albums Mausam and Jaan, including songs like “Bijuria” and “Tera Milna”.

“I was waiting for it! This was quite late. People knew me, they had seen me, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa used to have very high TRPs at that time. I was already famous but I wanted to have my independent music and independent films. It finally started coming out in 1998. It was a long wait since those were the times when even 2-3 years seemed very long. When it came, I was 25 and overwhelmed with the response. Phir toh line lag gayi! (There was no stopping after that)”

Sonu Nigam’s latest work includes Laal Singh Chaddha’s songs “Kahani” and “Main Ki Karaan” which have received a thumbs-up from the listeners. Calling himself lucky for getting acceptance in whatever he did, the 49-year-old artiste said in the previous interview, “As an artiste it is very fulfilling that you get to do all, your films, albums and TV show, everything is a hit. I must’ve done good deeds to get so much love and success.”

Sonu shared that in early 2000s, he was crooning for songs back-to-back and in several languages, “That time, I used to record so many songs, sometimes even a dozen in a day. On some days, we worked on the entire album. I’ve even sung 40 Odiya songs in a month. Those were hardworking days, but you can work as hard as you want to. It’s a commitment I’ve made to my craft, that I will never take it lightly. Earlier, we worked in wholesale, today we are selective. We are busy by choice.”

Sonu NIgam with Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Aditya Pancholi and Aftab Shivdasani on the set of Jaani Dishman. (Photo: Express Archives)

While Sonu says Bollywood offers also started coming his way at the same time, he made his film debut with Jaani Dushman in 2002. It had an ensemble cast of Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Aftab Shivdasani, Aditya Pancholi, Raj Babbar, Manisha Koirala and Armaan Kohli. Sonu followed it up with Love in Nepal the next year. But, both tanked at the box office. He’s acted in half-a-dozen films till date.

Recalling how his attempts at movies fell flat, he says he has no qualms about trying his luck. Sonu said in retrospection, “Take it this way. As a toddler we all try to walk and fall because at that time, that’s all that we knew. I choose those films with as much understanding as I had, even if they were the ones I shouldn’t have signed. It’s neither our fault nor our bad fate. It’s just that I did not know which offer I should take and which one I should refuse. So, no regrets because that’s all the knowledge that I had then.”

Mentioning how his movie choices were part of his growing up, Sonu added, “Today, if you tell your mother that you fell when you were a kid, she’ll tell you that’s because you didn’t know how to walk then. But today, when you know how to walk and then you fall down, it’s your fault. I was so young. People came to me and said ‘Sonu, you are our child, please do this film’ and I did it. I had no knowledge how the film would shape up later. I didn’t have that much intelligence. At least people appreciate that I didn’t sign more films after those ones failed. I learnt from all my experiences. That was a part of my growing up.”

Sonu Nigam is a recipient of dozens of awards including India’s fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri. He even bagged an Oscars nomination in 2014 in the category of Best Original Score, along with Bickram Ghosh for the Hindi movie Jal.

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Happy birthday, Sonu Nigam. Thank you for all the songs!