5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jan 28, 2026 01:16 PM IST
For more than a decade in contemporary Bollywood, love, and very often its loss, learned to sing through Arijit Singh.
In an industry where a song can often communicate what even the most intense dialogue cannot, Singh’s grainy, bruised baritone came to signal the heart’s triumphs and tribulations. On Tuesday, in a striking announcement on social media, the 38-year-old said he was stepping away from playback singing — a significant turn for a voice that has become inseparable from today’s Hindi film industry.
“Hello, Happy new year to all. I want to thank you all for giving me so much love all these years as listeners. I am happy to announce that I am not going to be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey,” he posted.
Singh is now likely to turn his focus to independent music and composition, which, he has long maintained, was his original calling.
In a conversation with this reporter in 2013, Singh had recalled telling the legendary lyricist Javed Akhtar that he wanted to be a composer. “But Javed saab told me, pehle singer ban jao, phir composer bhi ban jaana (First become a singer, then become a composer as well). I am following his advice… Composers like my voice and I enjoy singing but what I really love is producing and programming music. One needs to have fun with what is being done,” he had said.
Singh first came into the spotlight during the reality show Fame Gurukul (Sony), where he lost in the finals. “I was 18 then and the show put me out there. It gave me the chance I needed to stay back in Mumbai,” he had said, having spent long hours in the programming room between recordings, learning to use audio set-ups and arrange music.
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Singh grew up in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, in a household that encouraged him to study and practise classical music. Bollywood songs were largely off-limits. His mother, a devoted music enthusiast, enrolled him in lessons at the age of three under a well-known local teacher, Rajendra Prasad Hazari, who did not allow him to listen to popular music. He was told that if he wanted to learn something pure, he had to give up other genres.
Occasionally, however, the eight-year-old would catch Bollywood songs playing on the radio in another part of the house and slowly learned to identify golden oldies by Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. Ironically, it was this same guru who later urged him to audition for the television reality show, not wanting him to remain “teaching music to kids all his life”.
After losing the competition, Singh returned home and began working in the Bengali film industry. An offer from Kumar Taurani of Tips Music to record an album brought him rushing back to Mumbai. But the album, which took nearly a year to be recorded, mixed and mastered, was eventually never released. Disheartened, Singh again decided to return home.
Just before he was to leave, in 2010, a call from composer Pritam altered the course of his career. Pritam was looking for an assistant, and Singh’s name was recommended by his Bengali associates.
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His return to Mumbai coincided with a period when experimental directors were attempting new stories in Bollywood, and the music industry was reflecting this change. Singh fit seamlessly into this new environment. Working with Pritam sharpened his programming skills — casting the right singer, recording scratch vocals and arranging tracks.
One such scratch track sung by Singh led director-duo Abbas-Mastaan to select him for the fast-paced number “Jhoom Jhoom” in Players. “Phir Le Aaya Dil” was also originally recorded as a scratch version for the final singers to rehearse with, but Pritam retained Singh’s take. He went on to deliver hits such as “Tum Hi Ho”, “Kabira”, “Channa Mereya” and “Kesariya”, among many others. His recent collaborations with English pop star Ed Sheeran have also been widely popular.
Singh’s decision to step away from playback singing marks the end of a defining chapter in Bollywood music — and a return to the path he had always intended to follow as a composer and producer.
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