My respect to playback singer Gayatri just went up for speaking openly against the malpractices of Malayalam film music industry. Gayatri, in a response to music director M Jayachandran, has lashed out at his unwarranted comments. Read the full interview here (in Malayalam).
To those who cannot read Malayalam, here is a loose translation of the core of what she said:
M Jayachandran doesn’t need to tell me that I should listen to Shreya Ghoshal. I don’t need his advise. I don’t need to hear his opinion to understand that Shreya is the best singer in India. I’m not stupid enough to criticize Shreya’s singing.
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I’ve never asked for a chance to any music director. I am very happy in my space. These people should understand this.
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Bollywood singers are paid good money here, but what is the situation of our singers up north? I know about this. I have heard people blaming Hariharan’s pronunciation. They are very strict on this matter. They never would excuse even a small mistake. But what about us? The song “Chaanchaadi aadi” sung by Adnan Sami is rated very low in the charts. It’s not my personal opinion. People say this on media. The problem is not the choice of the audience, but the attitude of [Malayalam film music] industry.
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The industry doesn’t consider the local singers. I stand by that opinion. Singers from other states are VIPs for us. But do we get the same treatment from them? We are still asked “do you want the travel allowance” after we sing and this happens to singers like us who have been in this field for years. We are asked such questions when the north Indian singers are paid upto Rs. 75,000 per song. But the industry doesn’t have at least Rs. 2000 for singers like us.
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Why this discrimination? If it’s Adnan Sami, they are ready to pay upto 1 lakh rupees. We do not ask even half of this amount. All singers face this but nobody dare to tell the truth. But it must be told.
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Up to an extent, it is the singers themselves to be blamed. Some singers who come from reality shows tell the MDs, “sir, I will give Rs. 50000, please give me a chance”. Singers as a whole suffer due to this kind of people.
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There are organizations like MACTA and FEFKA. We go to their programmes and sing for free. They need our co-operation for their programmes but our needs are not considered.
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There is no gender difference in the case of singers not being paid for their work. In Bollywood and Tamil Nadu, they would send us call sheets even for small jingles. It is because they respect the work we do. Is there anything like it here?
Also you can listen to my Malayalam podcast with Gayatri and Pradip Somasundaran (in two parts) for M-Pod below.
Part I
Part II
