Latest / The Bridge by Sammy Chand / October 22, 2026 — "Sammy talks to Amaal Mallik, Part Two"

Transcript

October 22, 2026 — "Sammy talks to Amaal Mallik, Part Two" · The Bridge by Sammy Chand

0:07
Speaker 1: Presented here for you on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
0:13
Speaker 2: Hi, this is Madhuban Diwakshi and you're listening to The
0:19
Speaker 2: Bridge with Sami Chan. Hi everyone, this is Rashmeet Kaur
0:23
Speaker 2: and you're listening to The Bridge with Sami Chan.
0:26
Speaker 3: Hi everybody, I'm Karan Ojla and you're listening to Ruckus
0:29
Speaker 3: Avenue Radio.
0:32
Speaker 4: What it is? Hope you guys are doing well wherever
0:35
Speaker 4: you may be around the world. Coming live and direct
0:39
Speaker 4: to you from the Ruckus Avenue Radio Studios in Los Angeles, California.
0:44
Speaker 4: My name is Sammy Chand, and you are tuned in
0:47
Speaker 4: to an October 22nd edition of The Bridge. Certifiably, folks,
0:53
Speaker 4: the most entertaining hour in South Asian music is coming
0:57
Speaker 4: at ya! And as you guys know, this is... A
1:04
Speaker 4: part two of a conversation we began yesterday with Amal Malik.
1:09
Speaker 4: And if you tuned in to yesterday's show, you would
1:12
Speaker 4: have heard Amal talk about life. The gate at 16
1:16
Speaker 4: years old, the house in 2014, Suraj Dubai, nine months later,
1:24
Speaker 4: what a story. But today, I think I'm going to
1:28
Speaker 4: dive in a little bit more into the business. I'm
1:32
Speaker 4: going to ask him about what it's like being a
1:34
Speaker 4: composer in India. And as you guys know, I have
1:38
Speaker 4: a very famous question that I like to ask pretty
1:41
Speaker 4: much all of my guests, which is, what advice would
1:44
Speaker 4: they give their younger self? All these answers I'm going
1:49
Speaker 4: to expect from Amal today. Going to be a lot
1:54
Speaker 4: of fun. Been a great guest, super open, and tremendously
1:59
Speaker 4: courageous with telling his story. So buckle your seatbelts again, folks.
2:09
Speaker 4: Part two is coming at you. One of the things
2:13
Speaker 4: that we've been doing here since yesterday is we've been
2:15
Speaker 4: dedicating the music hours to Amal's work. We'll be joined
2:22
Speaker 4: today by Dr. Roy to give us a word on
2:26
Speaker 4: the avenue. But today, it's just me and Amal and
2:31
Speaker 4: the music that has made him a household name across
2:35
Speaker 4: the world in Indian music. So let's get this show going.
2:40
Speaker 4: Welcome everybody to The Bridge.
2:59
Speaker 5: Look, your color is.
3:00
Speaker 2: Crazy, crazy.
3:01
Speaker 3: You're not a girl, you're a hot case. I say,
3:03
Speaker 3: what should I say? Nothing can be said.
3:06
Speaker 6: Delhi is moving like London.
3:08
Speaker 5: Like Raveena Tandon.
3:15
Speaker 3: Chanchit, Delhi, Hile hai London Matak Matak, Jazravi, Natandan Nagal
3:20
Speaker 3: gaane aayi hai Vanthan Goli chal gayi dhaan Nagare vilayati
3:25
Speaker 3: Ego merayati Nagare vilayati Ego merayati Tashan dikhaati.
3:30
Speaker 5: Phul Ar ladki beauty phul Kar gayi.
3:33
Speaker 7: Chull Sandal mere chum chum karde hai gaya hai Brand
4:08
Speaker 7: New Girl Airplane ho mandya de mere heel ke honde Land.
4:12
Speaker 8: New Girl Sandal mere chum chum karde hai gaya hai
4:23
Speaker 8: Brand New Girl.
4:27
Speaker 7: I'm a beautiful girl I'm a beautiful girl I'm a.
4:34
Speaker 9: Beautiful girl I'm a beautiful girl I'm.
4:46
Speaker 6: A beautiful girl.
5:34
Speaker 4: Rebuilt by Amal Malik himself, showing you a little bit
5:38
Speaker 4: of a dance music side of him right there. And
5:41
Speaker 4: on this song, we dive into his vocal ability, something
5:46
Speaker 4: that Amal Malik is known for. Sure, his ability to
5:51
Speaker 4: write a song, but man, he can actually sing it
5:54
Speaker 4: for you. This song right here is called Jan He Medi.
6:04
Speaker 10: .
6:05
Speaker 5: Thank you.
6:47
Speaker 11: Oh, I ask myself, why am I away from you?
6:51
Speaker 5: While leaving, listen to me.
6:54
Speaker 12: Your name is on my lips.
6:58
Speaker 5: I remember you in my heart.
7:02
Speaker 2: You are mine.
7:08
Speaker 5: I love you. Tujh ko apna kabhi Kehne se pehle
7:50
Speaker 5: socha nahi Khaab.
7:53
Speaker 11: Mein bhi tera dil toad paaya nahi.
7:58
Speaker 9: Maine yeh zindagi Tere hi naam likh di meri Kismato
8:05
Speaker 9: se tujhe par jod paaya nahi.
8:10
Speaker 11: Puchta mein khud se Aur kya kahun.
8:15
Speaker 4: Tum se.
8:22
Speaker 5: Labon pe naam hai.
8:24
Speaker 12: Tera Ad mein yaad hai teri Tu mera naa hua
8:30
Speaker 12: to kya Tu phir bhi jaan hai meri Labon pe
8:35
Speaker 12: naam hai tera.
8:44
Speaker 5: Jaan hai meri.
8:46
Speaker 9: Jis din ye tujh bool gaya.
8:49
Speaker 5: Us dil tam jaayega.
8:52
Speaker 13: Ye dil kuch na kar paayega, na ek pal bhi
8:56
Speaker 13: ji paayega. Meri tara tujh ko jab.
9:01
Speaker 5: Ek din ho hi jaayega.
9:04
Speaker 13: Ishq tab samajhne aayega, tu khud ko rok na paayega.
9:14
Speaker 5: One day I walk.
9:21
Speaker 12: Dharkanon ko saason ko In akeli rathon ko.
9:29
Speaker 13: Intazaar kab se hai tera Labon pe naam hai tera
9:37
Speaker 13: Adil mein yaad hai teri Tu mera.
9:41
Speaker 12: Naam na hua to kya To kher bhi jaan hai
9:45
Speaker 12: meri Labon pe naam hai tera.
9:51
Speaker 4: Amal Malik, the song is called Jaan Hai Meri. And
9:56
Speaker 4: we've got a big day here on Ruckus Avenue Radio.
10:01
Speaker 4: Sabine Fahim with her show called Who Does She Think
10:04
Speaker 4: She Is is at 5 p.m. Ruby Basi is at
10:07
Speaker 4: 6 p.m. And we've got a big hour ahead here,
10:10
Speaker 4: part two of our conversation with Amal Malik. But now
10:14
Speaker 4: here is Dr. Roy for you guys.
10:16
Speaker 5: Hey guys, this is Dr.
10:17
Speaker 14: Roy with today's Word on the Avenue. In film and
10:20
Speaker 14: TV news, filmmaker Chitra Jayaram's documentary Love, Chaos, Kin is
10:25
Speaker 14: coming to Los Angeles theaters for an Oscar-qualifying run. The
10:29
Speaker 14: film explores a Chennai immigrant couple's unconventional journey through adoption, identity,
10:34
Speaker 14: and family. Filmed over six years, the documentary follows Lakshmi
10:38
Speaker 14: Iyer and Narayanan as they raise twin daughters of Navajo
10:42
Speaker 14: descent alongside their biological daughter. examining how families can honor
10:47
Speaker 14: a child's cultural heritage while navigating systemic barriers and the
10:51
Speaker 14: complexities of belonging. In media news, Dr. Shashi Tharoor headlined
10:56
Speaker 14: the Jaipur Literature Festival for its Los Angeles debut, bringing writers, artists, historians, diplomats,
11:03
Speaker 14: and cultural figures together for conversations spanning literature, culture, geopolitics, technology.
11:09
Speaker 2: And the arts.
11:10
Speaker 14: In event news, Emory University historian Ruby Lal has been
11:14
Speaker 14: named the 2027 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of
11:18
Speaker 14: the South at the John W. Kluge Center of the
11:21
Speaker 14: Library of Congress. Lal is a professor of Middle Eastern
11:25
Speaker 14: and South Asian Studies in Emory College of Arts and Sciences.
11:29
Speaker 14: She will spend four months in residence in Washington, D.C.
11:32
Speaker 14: beginning January of 2027. That's it for today's Word on
11:36
Speaker 14: the Avenue. Until next time.
11:38
Speaker 4: Thank you very much, Dr.
11:39
Speaker 2: Roy.
11:41
Speaker 4: After this, we're going to pull in Amal Malik in
11:43
Speaker 4: for our second part of our conversation. This song is
11:47
Speaker 4: called Tu Mera Nahi. Stand by for Amal.
11:50
Speaker 6: Chala gaya main door tu ne bhi roka nahi.
12:10
Speaker 15: Dil ko dard aisa mila jis ki dava nahi Ladh
12:17
Speaker 15: padha lakiro se par kuch bhi hua nahi Chalu ye
12:25
Speaker 15: maan bhi liya ab tu mera nahi Tum mera nahi.
12:38
Speaker 5: Roka nahi.
13:13
Speaker 10: Thank you.
13:27
Speaker 11: Dhoor jaane pe tere paas aata tha main Root jaane
13:36
Speaker 11: pe tere sar jhukata tha main Bin tere zindagi ka
13:44
Speaker 11: main kya karoon Kis tarah maane loo tu mera main
13:52
Speaker 11: tera Main wahi pe tha magar tu nahi dekha nahi.
14:02
Speaker 15: Teri khushi ko dekh kar maine kuch.
14:07
Speaker 1: Kaha nahi Ladh pada lakiro se par kuch bhi hua
14:15
Speaker 1: nahi Chalo ye maan bhi liya ab tu mera nahi.
14:24
Speaker 5: Kyun mera nahi Chala gaya main door.
14:30
Speaker 11: Tu ne bhi rokha nahi.
15:01
Speaker 4: Now, folks, it's my distinct pleasure to announce into the
15:04
Speaker 4: show Amal Malik. I wanted to carry on our conversation
15:09
Speaker 4: from yesterday, Amal. And one of the things that I
15:12
Speaker 4: know we were covering about AI, but every time anybody's
15:16
Speaker 4: ever asked me this question about the AI music thing,
15:18
Speaker 4: I always tell them our DAWs have been using all
15:21
Speaker 4: kinds of samples and loops and you can change the
15:25
Speaker 4: keys and notes of anything that you see there. There's
15:29
Speaker 4: all kinds of manipulation that's been happening in our software
15:31
Speaker 4: for a long time. So this is just.
15:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, so back in the day, then people like... Think
15:35
Speaker 2: about that. Then people like Harry Gregson Williams and Hans
15:38
Speaker 2: Zimmer and Jerry Goldsmith, all these people then should... You know,
15:44
Speaker 2: they were also... At the time, Purists, right?
15:47
Speaker 16: They also said, why are there these machines coming? Why
15:53
Speaker 16: are there analog synths coming? Why can't we just play
15:55
Speaker 16: the trombone? Why can't we play the clarinet?
15:58
Speaker 2: If the software is doing the job, but a human
16:01
Speaker 2: is playing it, it has lived like that for the
16:03
Speaker 2: last 40 years also. Hans Zimmer is using analog modular
16:07
Speaker 2: synths to do interstellar and so many things. And then
16:10
Speaker 2: still going back, but then he's going back to just
16:14
Speaker 2: play a simple piece on a church organ and on
16:17
Speaker 2: a piano. So it's not like the advent of electronic
16:21
Speaker 2: stuff from, you know, those... Purest worlds have not changed
16:26
Speaker 2: over time.
16:26
Speaker 4: That's right. We've been here.
16:28
Speaker 2: Are you telling me that people like Kraftwerk, the musicians,
16:31
Speaker 2: the German band, they were just playing analog modular synths
16:36
Speaker 2: and hiding their face behind masks. You can check them out, Kraftwerk,
16:40
Speaker 2: if you know about them. Yeah, I do. Yeah. So
16:42
Speaker 2: they were playing synths. So back then, everyone was saying that, okay,
16:45
Speaker 2: this is really bad music. Why are we doing this
16:47
Speaker 2: to music? We're destroying music. As long as the melody
16:50
Speaker 2: is good, as long as the lyrics make sense and
16:52
Speaker 2: hit home, as long as the singer or even the
16:55
Speaker 2: software singer is managing to make you feel good about
16:59
Speaker 2: the song or make you relate to it on a
17:01
Speaker 2: certain level, it's fine. You credit it the right way
17:04
Speaker 2: that if someone has sung, then you don't say that
17:07
Speaker 2: the vocals are AI. You cannot take away the credit
17:09
Speaker 2: of the artist in it. You can say beats by
17:11
Speaker 2: AI maybe or trumpet assisted by AI. Credit the AI also.
17:15
Speaker 2: I'm someone who crushes everybody. So if I get a
17:18
Speaker 2: chance to use AI, I will, in any song, I
17:20
Speaker 2: would use it to my advantage. But if I had
17:23
Speaker 2: the budget and I have the time, more than the budget,
17:25
Speaker 2: the time, I would call a session player, someone who
17:28
Speaker 2: plays a solo violin and replace that part. If you're
17:31
Speaker 2: so purist about it like me, I love doing it
17:33
Speaker 2: that way. Because I want to have that human interaction.
17:35
Speaker 2: I want what a human hand, even those small errors,
17:39
Speaker 2: even the perfection that a human can get sometimes.
17:42
Speaker 4: That's right.
17:43
Speaker 2: Yes. And those mistakes also matter. If you take the
17:46
Speaker 2: Beatles album, they tried to remaster it for iTunes and
17:50
Speaker 2: it's on shit. All the mistakes that the band would
17:55
Speaker 2: have made back then were hidden within those mixed parameters
17:58
Speaker 2: back then on just a four track or a four
18:02
Speaker 2: inch tape, which R.D. Burman and all of these people
18:04
Speaker 2: used back in the day. They had four tracks to record.
18:07
Speaker 2: But those But those things kept those mistakes hidden. Now,
18:11
Speaker 2: the new mastering gear, the new mixing consoles, the new
18:15
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson albums, you can hear certain baselines entering at
18:18
Speaker 2: just maybe half an hour late or like half a
18:21
Speaker 2: second late. You can hear those mistakes now because you're
18:24
Speaker 2: mastering for a certain year today or a certain DSP today. So,
18:30
Speaker 2: everything does not need to be done AI and everything
18:32
Speaker 2: does not have to be exclusively purist there is a
18:37
Speaker 2: delicate balance that a creator and composer it's the choice
18:40
Speaker 2: of the maker and of the film or the creator
18:43
Speaker 2: of the song how they want to do it but
18:46
Speaker 2: yes there are a lot of people in our country
18:48
Speaker 2: who are worried about this and globally also and rightly
18:53
Speaker 2: so I don't blame them because there is somewhere job
18:57
Speaker 2: opportunities going away true but It will keep, it's a
19:02
Speaker 2: pendulum now. Now you got to push back and say, okay,
19:05
Speaker 2: now I can do this better than the software. If
19:07
Speaker 2: you can, you're going to do it. If you believe
19:09
Speaker 2: you are better than the software, you will somehow beat
19:12
Speaker 2: the software also.
19:13
Speaker 4: Amal, I would be very, I think I would have
19:18
Speaker 4: disappointed my audience if I didn't ask you something about
19:21
Speaker 4: the actual industry itself and you personally. kind of mentioned
19:24
Speaker 4: something in a very light way that I think is
19:27
Speaker 4: a really big deal that I wanted to kind of
19:29
Speaker 4: talk about. If it's okay with you, thank you very
19:31
Speaker 4: much for your time on this, by the way.
19:33
Speaker 2: I've already said so many things in a very hard way.
19:36
Speaker 4: I'm going to pull on something, right? So there's something
19:38
Speaker 4: that you said there that I had down here, something
19:41
Speaker 4: I want to talk to you about, which is you
19:44
Speaker 4: brought up that royalties and the lack of them and
19:49
Speaker 4: the Indian royalty. music industry from a structural level. And
19:54
Speaker 4: now we're getting into the actual meat and potatoes here,
19:56
Speaker 4: which is The actual legalities, how the industry works with
20:01
Speaker 4: the artist and how the IP then travels through the ecosystem.
20:05
Speaker 4: The West has it well organized. It has its flaws.
20:10
Speaker 2: It's beautiful in the West. This is something very well organized.
20:14
Speaker 4: What are some things that you think and at what
20:17
Speaker 4: level need to change in the Indian music industry? Is it,
20:21
Speaker 4: and listen, I don't want you to name names or
20:23
Speaker 4: companies or whatever, because I know that.
20:24
Speaker 2: You've already done that. So I'll do it better. Well,
20:28
Speaker 2: I've done that time and again.
20:29
Speaker 4: What needs to change?
20:30
Speaker 2: I'll do it in a very simple way where the
20:32
Speaker 2: common man also understands that it is the hard work.
20:35
Speaker 2: It is the hard work of today, four pillars of
20:38
Speaker 2: music that I call music. Previously, people never even knew
20:41
Speaker 2: that a music composer exists or a writer exists. They
20:44
Speaker 2: only knew singers. Way before that, in our industry, because cinema,
20:48
Speaker 2: song and dance and all of that was there, people
20:51
Speaker 2: thought the actors themselves were singing. People didn't know there
20:53
Speaker 2: are singers. So, our country has taken a little longer
20:58
Speaker 2: time to educate itself that, okay, there is a singer.
21:01
Speaker 2: There is an actor on the song who is just lip-syncing.
21:04
Speaker 2: Sometimes today, actors are also singing, but most of them
21:07
Speaker 2: are lip-syncing to a singer's voice. The singer is, how
21:11
Speaker 2: do I say this? Last ball pe chakka maarte jaise.
21:14
Speaker 2: Last ball pe a singer comes and hits the six
21:17
Speaker 2: like a cricketer does. But the entire partnership is between
21:21
Speaker 2: the lyrics writer and the composer who brings the entire
21:23
Speaker 2: run chase till that last moment where you have to
21:25
Speaker 2: hit it out of the park. So, and then comes
21:29
Speaker 2: today a new, this is what I've been in my childhood,
21:32
Speaker 2: a music producer and no one even knows the kind
21:34
Speaker 2: of songs that I've ghost produced or worked on, been
21:37
Speaker 2: ripped off, not got royalties, not got credit, sometimes not
21:41
Speaker 2: got remunerated. There's so much that's happened with me. And again,
21:44
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, me being from this Legacy could have
21:47
Speaker 2: easily said something and people would have said, oh, he's
21:50
Speaker 2: just crying about nothing. But it's a villainous job to
21:54
Speaker 2: talk about royalties in our country because the labels don't
21:57
Speaker 2: want to pay a certain way. And they have been
21:59
Speaker 2: a certain way for all these years. And it's not
22:00
Speaker 2: just one label. It is every production house. It is
22:04
Speaker 2: all the labels. And sadly, even the global counterparts like Universal,
22:08
Speaker 2: Sony and Warner, when they come to India, they don't
22:11
Speaker 2: bring the structure from there to us. They are following
22:15
Speaker 2: the structure that India is following. And which is the
22:18
Speaker 2: Copyright Act of 1957 got amended in 2012 due to
22:23
Speaker 2: the hard work of someone called Javed Akhtar Saab, who's
22:25
Speaker 2: a legendary writer. And he explained, sadly, we have always
22:29
Speaker 2: been a film industry. And we still continue to be so.
22:32
Speaker 2: But only after the lockdown, we have just moved out
22:35
Speaker 2: as a subset and come out on our own as
22:38
Speaker 2: a music industry. When the lockdown happened, the films died.
22:40
Speaker 2: There was nothing to see. There was nothing, no content
22:43
Speaker 2: coming on OTT. There were no theater releases. What was
22:46
Speaker 2: saving humanity? Music, right? So where do you pay for them?
22:49
Speaker 2: Where India has never taught its people that you have
22:52
Speaker 2: to pay for music. We have only ripped music. Even
22:56
Speaker 2: me as a child, I didn't know at 10 or 12,
22:58
Speaker 2: I've seen websites, okay, just rip the song.mp3. 128 kbps
23:04
Speaker 2: 64 kbps not even checking if it's 320 kbps just
23:07
Speaker 2: shit quality but like doing it that way we have
23:10
Speaker 2: lived as a country that consumes music for free we
23:14
Speaker 2: believe that okay this guy is a guitarist he'll come
23:16
Speaker 2: play free at my party tonight this guy is a
23:18
Speaker 2: singer he'll come do this why do I have to
23:20
Speaker 2: pay 15 rupees or 10 rupees to listen to this
23:22
Speaker 2: song you don't have the idea how much of effort
23:25
Speaker 2: it takes for a team of musicians and a music
23:27
Speaker 2: composer at the front to make that 4 or 5
23:30
Speaker 2: minute or 3 minute piece of music So, it is
23:33
Speaker 2: an education problem that, okay, if you buy a product
23:37
Speaker 2: from a certain website, you're ready to pay how much
23:39
Speaker 2: ever for it. But just to listen to music, you don't...
23:42
Speaker 2: For people, it's like, oh, we're just listening to a
23:45
Speaker 2: song and we're just going to skip it after 30
23:47
Speaker 2: seconds if we don't like it. It's the culture of reels,
23:50
Speaker 2: it's the culture of DSP, streaming, everything is all about
23:54
Speaker 2: validation today. The pure way of making music is not happening. So...
24:00
Speaker 2: Payouts globally, I see people like Taylor Swift and everyone
24:04
Speaker 2: talk about things, but they still are emigrated. They still
24:07
Speaker 2: have money coming in. Even if she bought her catalog back,
24:10
Speaker 2: she still was making her share of the masters, the publishing,
24:15
Speaker 2: the contracts were in place. And maybe the balance was
24:18
Speaker 2: something an artist wouldn't like. Okay, I'm getting fitted and
24:22
Speaker 2: the label is making that much. This side, we are
24:24
Speaker 2: not making nothing. We have just the publishing share. And
24:28
Speaker 2: the publishing share is nothing. is nothing at all. We
24:31
Speaker 2: don't even know the concept of what a publishing house is.
24:34
Speaker 2: People are right now developing this in India that Sony
24:37
Speaker 2: has its own publishing that can work with a Universal label.
24:40
Speaker 2: Universal has its own publishing that can work with Sony.
24:43
Speaker 2: These things are very new. There's an Very avid, abstract
24:48
Speaker 2: understanding of these things. Even I'm educating myself and trying
24:51
Speaker 2: to figure out how I can help the younger generation
24:54
Speaker 2: know about this. And no one in my era has
24:56
Speaker 2: the guts like me, sadly, to stand up and take
24:59
Speaker 2: these things head on. Because you lose work, you lose relations.
25:02
Speaker 2: But someone has to do it. I'm born on the
25:05
Speaker 2: same birthday as Tupac. I'm okay to take a bullet
25:08
Speaker 2: for it. And I believe I'm the Shegwara of music,
25:12
Speaker 2: I'm the Shah Rukh Khan of music, I'm all these things.
25:15
Speaker 2: Because no one else wants to stand by and lose
25:18
Speaker 2: their career. I think there is God's hand above me,
25:22
Speaker 2: I come from a beautiful legacy, I have to maintain
25:25
Speaker 2: those things. And I have to speak about this because
25:27
Speaker 2: people in India believe that a big star makes the
25:31
Speaker 2: song big. That is completely true and untrue. Because if
25:35
Speaker 2: you take legends, heroes like Shah Rukh Khan, who I love,
25:39
Speaker 2: Salman Khan, who launched me, someone like Aamir Khan, this
25:42
Speaker 2: is the holy trinity that has held on as superstardom
25:45
Speaker 2: for the last 30-40 years, right? These are the biggest
25:48
Speaker 2: names across USA, UK, everyone. These three stars have been
25:51
Speaker 2: the biggest. Now come Ranbir, Ranbir and all these guys
25:54
Speaker 2: who are a little educated about these rights and so on.
25:57
Speaker 2: But the senior actors also were explained to by Javed Saab.
26:03
Speaker 2: He said, it's a very simple thing and a complicated
26:07
Speaker 2: thing that people don't know that the chicken comes first
26:09
Speaker 2: for the egg. But if a song was made, like
26:13
Speaker 2: I would give a simple example. If you can hear me,
26:15
Speaker 2: am I still audible?
26:17
Speaker 4: Yes, you are. Carry on, please.
26:19
Speaker 2: If there was no song like Pehla Na Shaan, you
26:24
Speaker 2: wouldn't know that a star like Aamir Khan is born. Okay?
26:29
Speaker 2: If there was no song like which is that song
26:33
Speaker 2: from people wouldn't know this new superstar called Salman Khan
26:42
Speaker 2: back then and if there was no or if there
26:46
Speaker 2: was no like Divana which is Shah Rukh Khan's debut
26:51
Speaker 2: film people wouldn't know this superstar like Shah Rukh Khan
26:55
Speaker 2: obviously their work is incredible obviously they are the ones
26:58
Speaker 2: who have made it themselves But it was the song
27:01
Speaker 2: that put them into people's hearts even before the movie.
27:04
Speaker 2: People didn't come to see the movies before the songs
27:06
Speaker 2: were released. The songs built that emotion between the audience
27:10
Speaker 2: and this actor or any actor that, okay, I want
27:13
Speaker 2: to see this movie. Why? The music is like, how
27:17
Speaker 2: do you say it in Indian culture? The weddings are
27:19
Speaker 2: the biggest thing, right? The big side Indian wedding celebration.
27:22
Speaker 2: So the wedding card is what makes you decide whether
27:25
Speaker 2: I'm going for that party or that wedding, right? It's
27:28
Speaker 2: the same thing. The movie as they say, or the
27:31
Speaker 2: wedding invitation or the invitation to come see a movie
27:34
Speaker 2: is the bloody music. Yeah. If your music isn't working,
27:37
Speaker 2: even an awarapan cannot be salvaged.
27:39
Speaker 4: That's right.
27:40
Speaker 2: Imran Hashmi's entire career, in spite of being a tremendous actor, superstar,
27:44
Speaker 2: heavily depends on songs.
27:45
Speaker 4: That's right.
27:46
Speaker 2: So what about those kids? What about the people? And
27:49
Speaker 2: it broke me only at a point, Sami, that, you know,
27:52
Speaker 2: I saw a writer who wrote a legendary song, which
27:54
Speaker 2: must be so famous back in America, because... People listen
27:58
Speaker 2: to more retro music than the relevant, the new age
28:01
Speaker 2: stuff here. I think a lot of people there still
28:03
Speaker 2: listen to Kishore Da, Rafi Sahib and all of that.
28:07
Speaker 2: And Sonu Ji, Kumar Shanu, more than us. You know,
28:10
Speaker 2: they do listen to us, but this music is etched
28:12
Speaker 2: in their heart. So, if you go back in time,
28:16
Speaker 2: There is a writer called Santosh Anand whose song was Ik.
28:19
Speaker 12: Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai, Mojho Ki Raghani Hai, Zindagi Aur
28:27
Speaker 12: Kuch Nahin, Teri Meri Kahani.
28:29
Speaker 2: If these words weren't written, or if someone had not written,
28:32
Speaker 2: Lag Ja Ghale, Ke Phir Yeh Raat Ho Na Ho,
28:35
Speaker 2: or if Madan Mohan had not composed that, How would
28:39
Speaker 2: you be able to know the singer, the star, whatever?
28:43
Speaker 2: I even credit the singers less a little bit. They
28:46
Speaker 2: may feel bad about it, but they are the last
28:48
Speaker 2: that come into the studio to do the song. Unless
28:51
Speaker 2: the singer sits in the creative process, which my brother does,
28:54
Speaker 2: or sometimes Arijit has done throughout his career with people
28:57
Speaker 2: like Pritam, who've been in the room, seen the process.
29:00
Speaker 2: They are the people who respect people like us who
29:02
Speaker 2: are creating the song from scratch. thin air man it's
29:05
Speaker 2: not just made on a piano it's not just made
29:07
Speaker 2: on a beat sometimes I'm just driving and a melody
29:10
Speaker 2: pops into my brain how does that happen We are
29:13
Speaker 2: here doing God's work amongst devils. I would say that.
29:16
Speaker 2: That's the absolute truth. And maybe in my era, it
29:20
Speaker 2: may not change, but I think the change has come
29:22
Speaker 2: through because I've been the first one trying to talk
29:24
Speaker 2: about this in my era. Before me, there was Sunu Nigam.
29:28
Speaker 2: Before that, there was Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Lata Ji,
29:31
Speaker 2: all have spoken. But on the music composer side, very
29:35
Speaker 2: few in my era, as young as me, and today
29:39
Speaker 2: by speaking this, I can lose all my work. I've
29:41
Speaker 2: lost so many films. It doesn't matter to me. Obviously,
29:45
Speaker 2: it hurts because when you lose a film due to
29:48
Speaker 2: such things you feel that okay maybe my talent doesn't
29:51
Speaker 2: matter maybe my words matter but the words will matter
29:54
Speaker 2: to someone trying today to enter the industry has no
29:57
Speaker 2: motivation because he knows he can't earn his livelihood except
30:00
Speaker 2: by jumping on stage If what about the people who
30:03
Speaker 2: cannot sing? What about the composer who could never have
30:05
Speaker 2: a voice? What about the lyrics writer who can never
30:08
Speaker 2: stand on stage and sing his song or feature in
30:10
Speaker 2: his music videos? Where are those creators, those authors going
30:14
Speaker 2: to go? My question comes for those. I today somehow
30:18
Speaker 2: without doing any Riyaz, without having any classical knowledge about singing,
30:22
Speaker 2: I've had Western classical knowledge in music and Indian classical
30:25
Speaker 2: through my grandfather. But I can't thing is why I
30:29
Speaker 2: can earn my bread and butter on stage. But what
30:32
Speaker 2: if I could not? What if I was just a
30:34
Speaker 2: music producer and a music composer? What would we be doing?
30:38
Speaker 2: The royalty share that comes from publishing is just enough
30:42
Speaker 2: and it feels like we're on a job or a payroll.
30:45
Speaker 2: You have no idea that an 8 or 10 lakh
30:48
Speaker 2: Indian rupees song like Suraj Dubai or a 15 lakh
30:52
Speaker 2: rupees song like Tum Hi Ho if you know the
30:55
Speaker 2: anthem from Aashiqui which Mithun has done. And I believe
30:58
Speaker 2: he and I are the only two last of the
31:00
Speaker 2: Mohicans left who are doing music the purest way. And
31:03
Speaker 2: we are the ones fighting for this in the most...
31:05
Speaker 2: He does it very respectfully and kindly. I do it
31:07
Speaker 2: like a warrior. I take everyone head on. But it
31:11
Speaker 2: is important because every... I cannot be like someone. I
31:15
Speaker 2: have to be myself. That's right. And if I don't
31:17
Speaker 2: put this fight, my kids, my boys who are assistants today,
31:21
Speaker 2: who are tomorrow looking up to me, like they look
31:23
Speaker 2: at me and say, after 140 songs, you're still figuring
31:27
Speaker 2: out how to buy a new house. Are you still
31:29
Speaker 2: figuring out? Do you need to pay EMI on that car?
31:31
Speaker 2: Are you still figuring out how to get a small
31:34
Speaker 2: piece of land for yourself somewhere? It took 12 years.
31:38
Speaker 2: It takes two songs, brother. Only Peter Andre made only
31:42
Speaker 2: two songs, Mysterious Girl and something else. He has two
31:45
Speaker 2: islands in the Bahamas. Where does Arijit Singh have it?
31:48
Speaker 2: Where does Armaan Malik have it? We don't have singer royalties.
31:51
Speaker 2: We don't have composer royalties. I'm talking about the master share.
31:55
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about publishing. That's right. And I don't
31:57
Speaker 2: even say that the label should give it immediately. It
32:01
Speaker 2: should be like... There should be some structure, yeah. There
32:04
Speaker 2: should be a simple structure where I believe you license
32:06
Speaker 2: it from us. Or if you buy it out and
32:09
Speaker 2: you don't give us the masters, then that fee should
32:11
Speaker 2: be so breathtakingly beautiful, which is happening now with legends,
32:15
Speaker 2: young legends like Anirudh Rabichandar, who's doing it on the
32:17
Speaker 2: south side. And he's asking for his rights. He's asking
32:20
Speaker 2: for licensing and he's not wrong. He's getting 25 crores
32:23
Speaker 2: an album. And the biggest composer on the Hindi side
32:26
Speaker 2: like Pritam is not able to get more than 3 crores.
32:29
Speaker 2: So where do you go with this math? What do
32:31
Speaker 2: you do? He's been around 25 years and this boy's
32:34
Speaker 2: been around 10 years, like how much I have. Maybe two,
32:36
Speaker 2: three years before me. And I'm glad someone like him
32:39
Speaker 2: is fighting for this.
32:40
Speaker 4: That's right.
32:40
Speaker 2: Because on the Hindi side, there's nothing. The South Indian
32:43
Speaker 2: composers are loved like superstars. You see their credit come
32:48
Speaker 2: as big and as impactful as the directors, the heroes
32:52
Speaker 2: of the film. Yeah. So they are not even having
32:54
Speaker 2: to fight with it or fight for it because there
32:57
Speaker 2: is a lack of creative respect or creative freedom here.
33:00
Speaker 2: They don't even want to come this side without the
33:02
Speaker 2: big monies. They are treated like gods and might as
33:05
Speaker 2: well do that because music is a godly job. It's
33:08
Speaker 2: like painting. You don't know what's going to come on paper.
33:11
Speaker 2: It's a canvas that I'm painting. So I would say
33:14
Speaker 2: music is tougher because there's no reference. There's no, you
33:18
Speaker 2: don't know what you're going to blurt out in the
33:19
Speaker 2: next minute. What can become an oak line? You don't know.
33:23
Speaker 2: So where, once the mind stops working, once the hand
33:27
Speaker 2: stops working and I cannot play the piano, forget me, anyone,
33:31
Speaker 2: how will that man earn his livelihood or how will
33:33
Speaker 2: that woman earn her livelihood? We do not have an
33:36
Speaker 2: access to that side. So when you, you know, because
33:40
Speaker 2: when you, sorry, this is getting long.
33:41
Speaker 4: No, I love this.
33:42
Speaker 2: Thank you. When you, when a song, if you take,
33:46
Speaker 2: I would say like 100,000 USD has been spent in,
33:50
Speaker 2: spent in like marketing that song. So when you've got
33:54
Speaker 2: your marketing cost back, when your label is recouped and
33:57
Speaker 2: received that money through the success of the song, the
33:59
Speaker 2: film distributors, producers, actors have made their share of the pie,
34:03
Speaker 2: then you should start paying the composer back. Or like
34:06
Speaker 2: the creative, even if there are four people, like in India,
34:09
Speaker 2: even these splits, like how we do it in the
34:11
Speaker 2: West when Armaan works with a foreign musician or works
34:14
Speaker 2: with four people in a room in LA, all of
34:16
Speaker 2: them have splits right according to how much they have
34:19
Speaker 2: contributed to a song even a guitarist has rights there
34:22
Speaker 2: even a flute player has rights there even someone who's
34:25
Speaker 2: played just a bass line but it's not just a
34:28
Speaker 2: bass line it's what do you say that is what
34:35
Speaker 2: you identify as MJ's song even before he sings it
34:38
Speaker 2: right so they all have a share in the west
34:41
Speaker 2: and it's Everywhere except India. I don't know about the
34:43
Speaker 2: whole Asian subcontinent. I don't know how Korea and anything
34:46
Speaker 2: works yet. I've not delved into that. But in India,
34:50
Speaker 2: film side and music side are now, music is just
34:54
Speaker 2: getting out of the film industry as it was always
34:56
Speaker 2: a subset of the film industry. We are just coming
34:59
Speaker 2: out of it. It's just been five years that the
35:02
Speaker 2: music industry has been born. It's been five years but
35:06
Speaker 2: this fight has been happening since 2014 and Armaan and
35:10
Speaker 2: I have been at the front of it. We have
35:12
Speaker 2: spoken on several podcasts. It's because of us that people
35:16
Speaker 2: like today are fighting and raising their voices. Very few
35:20
Speaker 2: of them but they are. So the rebellion has begun.
35:22
Speaker 2: The only way they can stop it is by not
35:25
Speaker 2: working with us which is also completely fine. But I
35:29
Speaker 2: don't think I'm going to stop saying this because it
35:31
Speaker 2: is the livelihood of someone who cannot perform on stage.
35:34
Speaker 2: That is the biggest problem. More than me, the lyric writer.
35:37
Speaker 2: More than me, a composer who cannot sing. More than me,
35:40
Speaker 2: a violin player who played a beautiful riff in Mohabbatein,
35:44
Speaker 2: Shah Rukh Khan's movie. If he's playing.
35:49
Speaker 2: What about him? All these guys, once they cannot play
35:53
Speaker 2: in time, once they cannot play in pitch, they develop...
35:56
Speaker 2: All musicians keep their emotions inside and develop so many
35:59
Speaker 2: autoimmune diseases. I've seen them suffer. I have had to
36:02
Speaker 2: go and help them. So many people have at times
36:05
Speaker 2: helped me. And it's not nice a feeling to, you know,
36:08
Speaker 2: just keep asking for. And there were times like, you know,
36:11
Speaker 2: last 10 years, I have pulled my credit out of
36:17
Speaker 2: some places. I've pulled my pound of flesh. But it's
36:20
Speaker 2: no more fun even like doing it that way. It
36:23
Speaker 2: should just be a given. Once you recoup, okay, for
36:25
Speaker 2: a label like T-Series, which is the biggest giant of India.
36:28
Speaker 2: Yash Raj, Stare Gama, Sony, Warner, all these boys, they're
36:32
Speaker 2: all getting into film music heavily. They're all becoming film
36:35
Speaker 2: producers also. They're doing tie-ups.
36:38
Speaker 4: With the film companies now. Directly, yeah, that's right.
36:41
Speaker 2: Like what Fox is, Star is, 20th Century, that's what
36:44
Speaker 2: T-Series and Dharman, Yash Raj all are. But once you
36:47
Speaker 2: recoup the money, what you are put on the film
36:51
Speaker 2: you know marketing budgets are really big I get it
36:54
Speaker 2: no song can reach without marketing because the volume the
36:56
Speaker 2: influx of world music after the lockdown is insane even
36:59
Speaker 2: in India there used to be like about 10,000 songs
37:02
Speaker 2: released in one year independently and with the film. 10,000,
37:06
Speaker 2: that's about it. That seems like a big number, but
37:08
Speaker 2: that's nothing. Now, if you do a mathematical understanding, there's
37:13
Speaker 2: about 14,000, 15,000 songs a day maybe. Yeah, that's right.
37:17
Speaker 2: Maybe a lakh of songs coming a week. You don't
37:20
Speaker 2: even know AI, non-AI, whatever. But there is that much influx.
37:25
Speaker 2: How do you make even a good piece of music stand? Marketing.
37:29
Speaker 2: So once you invest X amount of money on marketing
37:32
Speaker 2: and once the producers, the actors and the labels have
37:34
Speaker 2: made that back and you've reached the NPNL and your LHS, RHS, whatever,
37:39
Speaker 2: your books have tallied and you've made money. And once
37:42
Speaker 2: you start making profit from it, start sharing it. Sign
37:45
Speaker 2: a contract like how Anirudh and Rehman and all these
37:48
Speaker 2: boys are signing contracts that says You keep 70%. No problem.
37:52
Speaker 2: Give me 30%. Whatever the artist deal, you can give
37:55
Speaker 2: 50-50 also like Rahman Sir has kept. But there are
37:57
Speaker 2: times where they have forced him out of movies that, okay,
38:00
Speaker 2: we don't want to pay. Let's get Rahman out of
38:01
Speaker 2: this thing. Yeah. Okay, this guy was asking, let's get
38:05
Speaker 2: him out of it. And it's not just one person.
38:07
Speaker 2: I have had 97% of my catalog with T-Series. But
38:10
Speaker 2: even they now understand that this is the way to
38:13
Speaker 2: go ahead, maybe. An artist will eventually fight. On the
38:16
Speaker 2: independent side, my fight is completely honest because there, there
38:20
Speaker 2: is no actor. There, there is no superstar making up
38:23
Speaker 2: music big as they say, okay, it's come on so-and-so's face.
38:26
Speaker 2: That's why it works. No, that is happening because of
38:29
Speaker 2: the song and its own story. So on the independent side,
38:33
Speaker 2: we have to sadly call it non-film because we have
38:35
Speaker 2: film and non-film. So non-film music in India, you should
38:40
Speaker 2: completely share it from the start. Film music, I still
38:44
Speaker 2: understand there's huge budgets, there's actors fees, there's producer fees,
38:47
Speaker 2: there's production, you know, losses that happen. Your film doesn't
38:50
Speaker 2: do well, but if it does well, Then I think
38:54
Speaker 2: even the composer is fine. If the song doesn't do well,
38:56
Speaker 2: we are also ready to take a hit. That okay,
38:58
Speaker 2: it didn't do well. It didn't earn certain numbers. We're
39:00
Speaker 2: not getting the payouts yet. We'll get it after 10 years.
39:03
Speaker 2: We'll get it after 12 years. But at some point,
39:05
Speaker 2: will you not pay? That's unfair then. Then okay, then
39:09
Speaker 2: it's fine. Then I make my own music, put it
39:10
Speaker 2: on my own label. Screw all of it.
39:12
Speaker 4: That's what's happening more and more. Yeah, for sure.
39:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's not me. I am seeing younger kids
39:17
Speaker 2: talk to me in this language as I'm speaking right now.
39:19
Speaker 2: That's right. Where they come up to me and ask me, sir,
39:22
Speaker 2: if we're working with you, what can we expect as
39:25
Speaker 2: either a buyout, which can be handsome, which I don't
39:29
Speaker 2: like to use the word, but India is all about buyouts.
39:31
Speaker 2: When I come here, I've done a Dua Lipa official
39:34
Speaker 2: India remix of the song. But if it was done
39:37
Speaker 2: by Alesso, if it was done by Tiesto, he would
39:40
Speaker 2: have the IP of the remix, right? I have no
39:42
Speaker 2: rights to it. It's just on my name. And even then...
39:46
Speaker 2: The labels didn't want to credit it as my remix.
39:48
Speaker 2: They wanted to call it India remix or whatever. They
39:52
Speaker 2: didn't want to name me also in the song. So
39:54
Speaker 2: I believe all the global counterparts of the labels that
39:58
Speaker 2: are in India, they don't even know. So the Indian
40:01
Speaker 2: label heads or whoever they are, are actually telling the
40:03
Speaker 2: foreign labels, okay, you don't worry about this. We'll pay
40:06
Speaker 2: a fee and we'll buy it out forever. You don't
40:08
Speaker 2: worry about the royalties. So it's the setup within the
40:10
Speaker 2: Indian scheme of things. We're not letting a simple one
40:14
Speaker 2: pager has to be made. But this is the song.
40:17
Speaker 2: This is how much it is earning. There needs to
40:19
Speaker 2: be a blockchain technology to even get the royalties in place.
40:22
Speaker 2: We get publishing also like it trickles down. We don't
40:24
Speaker 2: even get it quarterly. We don't know. Some days it'll
40:27
Speaker 2: come like $ 500. Some days it'll come $ 200. Some day
40:30
Speaker 2: I'm getting $ 50. Some day I'm getting $ 45, 000. It's not organized.
40:34
Speaker 2: How will someone who completely quit? I'm still young. I'm
40:37
Speaker 2: doing my work. What if someone is 65 like my
40:40
Speaker 2: uncle is or someone in that era and legends like
40:43
Speaker 2: Rahman and once they have, Rahman still has kept his
40:46
Speaker 2: IP in so many Tamil films. That's why he could
40:48
Speaker 2: take them and convert them to Hindi lyrics and do
40:50
Speaker 2: it in the Hindi belt. He kept rights of, like
40:53
Speaker 2: Elai Raja sir, they kept rights of all the Tamil, Telugu,
40:56
Speaker 2: Malayalam work and converted it, just converted it into Hindi.
41:00
Speaker 2: Not that it's not hard work, it's the same amount
41:02
Speaker 2: of work to rewrite a song. But they had the rights,
41:05
Speaker 2: that's why they could do it. Today, I cannot even
41:07
Speaker 2: stop a label from recreating a Suraj Dubai. Preetam cannot
41:11
Speaker 2: stop a song of his getting recreated. Not that we
41:15
Speaker 2: want to stop. If someone does it as a beautiful tribute,
41:17
Speaker 2: contributes well, and gives us the credit because we have
41:20
Speaker 2: been the originals of those songs, it's fine. But when
41:23
Speaker 2: that song earns money... The publishing, which is anyway split
41:27
Speaker 2: between two people, now becomes between four people. A new
41:30
Speaker 2: writer who recreated the lyrics, a new composer recreated the song.
41:34
Speaker 2: An old writer, new writer, old composer, new composer, now
41:37
Speaker 2: in four parts. So if a song was 100 rupees,
41:41
Speaker 2: 95 rupees belongs to the label. In five rupees, we
41:44
Speaker 2: have two parts, which is two and a half rupees
41:46
Speaker 2: for the writer, two and a half rupees for the
41:48
Speaker 2: music director. Now when you recreate it, it is split
41:52
Speaker 2: into two. 4.5555% each. Where will anybody make money? And
41:59
Speaker 2: how long will a human brain work? That's where then
42:02
Speaker 2: everyone is going to only start giving AI beats and
42:04
Speaker 2: the labels are not even figuring out that someone has
42:06
Speaker 2: given them an AI song and walked off. So I
42:08
Speaker 2: don't blame the artists. They don't want to work hard
42:10
Speaker 2: for someone who doesn't want to appreciate their talent. Then
42:13
Speaker 2: it's easy. I'll also prompt something and give it. But
42:15
Speaker 2: because I come from a legacy, because I come from
42:18
Speaker 2: so much originality within my soul and purity that I
42:22
Speaker 2: don't want yeah I want to do it I will
42:25
Speaker 2: take the assistance of whatever technology and tools are available
42:28
Speaker 2: to the world and I am gaining my knowledge on
42:30
Speaker 2: this subject I am also going to go and learn
42:32
Speaker 2: music business very soon once I take a break which
42:35
Speaker 2: I have from film when I get time I would
42:37
Speaker 2: like to go to Boston or somewhere and figure like
42:39
Speaker 2: how how I can bring this back to my country
42:42
Speaker 2: because and my label also which I started with my
42:46
Speaker 2: own young kids and everyone uh who don't have access
42:50
Speaker 2: to the big boys of, you know, the labels here.
42:52
Speaker 2: Everyone cannot meet a Sony or a Universal or get
42:55
Speaker 2: into the doors of Warner within India as well. It
42:57
Speaker 2: takes some time. And I've made a home label where
43:01
Speaker 2: every kid can come and do his music hold how
43:05
Speaker 2: much ever of the publishing you want. If we market
43:07
Speaker 2: the song, we will share the masters. If you're not
43:09
Speaker 2: doing anything for your song, it belongs to you. Tomorrow
43:12
Speaker 2: you want to sync it, you sync it. Whatever the
43:15
Speaker 2: label credit, we'll take it. Whatever the sync fees, we
43:17
Speaker 2: will share. The label share is the label share. The
43:20
Speaker 2: artist share should be the artist share. And publishing itself,
43:24
Speaker 2: imagine on publishing I would another throw numbers at Duke
43:28
Speaker 2: because just on the publishing side after doing 600 songs
43:33
Speaker 2: or 700 songs people legends like Vishal Shekhar and Preetam
43:37
Speaker 2: get about it's a big sum 30 crore Indian rupees
43:40
Speaker 2: as royalty that I would convert to something you can
43:43
Speaker 2: figure it out in whatever USD that is they got
43:47
Speaker 2: 30 crores as royalty once last year or something like
43:50
Speaker 2: that and the kids who have done like me about
43:54
Speaker 2: 100 songs or something got 30 times lesser than that
43:57
Speaker 2: I got about a crore and that if you span
44:00
Speaker 2: it around 12 months and coming irregularly it's like I'm
44:02
Speaker 2: on a payroll on a job it's like it's nothing
44:06
Speaker 2: it's like it's and everyone wants to enjoy the success
44:10
Speaker 2: and everyone wants to become like a big name and
44:13
Speaker 2: the only process has been film music all these years
44:15
Speaker 2: But now I think kids don't even care. They're sitting
44:18
Speaker 2: on Instagram becoming superstars from there, from YouTube shots. People
44:22
Speaker 2: from the film side are running behind indie pop musicians
44:25
Speaker 2: and saying, can we license your song? But the education
44:27
Speaker 2: is so less that even they don't know what amount
44:30
Speaker 2: of money to ask. And some of my friends have
44:32
Speaker 2: given away songs, which were huge, big numbers for pittance
44:36
Speaker 2: because they're like, oh, it's going to come on a
44:38
Speaker 2: big hero's face. It doesn't matter. Right now, that was
44:42
Speaker 2: my dream. Because I want a song, if a song comes,
44:45
Speaker 2: I will become something. Today, you don't even need that.
44:49
Speaker 2: It's my dream because I come from that era. Today,
44:51
Speaker 2: the kids are like.
44:52
Speaker 4: They don't care about that.
44:52
Speaker 2: They tell me, they tell me, bro, you want to
44:54
Speaker 2: work with me? This is the fee, this is the
44:56
Speaker 2: kill fee. If it doesn't work out, this is how
44:58
Speaker 2: much I'll take 25% back. And this is... There's so much.
45:01
Speaker 2: I'm glad they have these things in their head. Because somewhere.
45:06
Speaker 16: It's going to be like, yeah.
45:08
Speaker 2: Somewhere pure idiots like me as they say, because a
45:10
Speaker 2: lot of people within my system call me an idiot
45:13
Speaker 2: because this is how you kick away your leg. You
45:16
Speaker 2: kick away your work and you kick away all kinds
45:18
Speaker 2: of things. But he, It's fine. If I don't do it,
45:22
Speaker 2: I don't see anyone else even stand up next to
45:24
Speaker 2: me and even voice this. So, that's fine. In my time,
45:28
Speaker 2: in my door, as they say, in my era, I
45:30
Speaker 2: have the balls, I have the guts, and I have
45:33
Speaker 2: the bandwidth and the intellect to speak about a system
45:36
Speaker 2: that needs to change. We are not enemies. Neither is
45:39
Speaker 2: the label my enemy, neither I am the label's enemy.
45:42
Speaker 2: But if you can... do this for the authors, do
45:45
Speaker 2: this for the singers, do this for the music producers,
45:48
Speaker 2: you will see the kind of intent when people make money,
45:52
Speaker 2: they will work 10 times hard.
45:54
Speaker 4: It will be a healthy industry.
45:55
Speaker 2: I want to give this company even more great music.
45:57
Speaker 2: I want to do best for this person. If you
46:00
Speaker 2: do not give them that, then where is the motivation?
46:03
Speaker 2: Someone goes back home and here we eat credits also.
46:05
Speaker 2: Like you don't know so many people's songs come on
46:07
Speaker 2: so many people's names. You don't even know the kind
46:10
Speaker 2: of stuff that goes on in India. There are kids
46:12
Speaker 2: who come up to me, sir, I did this song
46:14
Speaker 2: and this rapper took it, that artist took it, this
46:16
Speaker 2: actor did it with some other musician. They come crying
46:20
Speaker 2: because they're not educated on how to fight for their rights.
46:23
Speaker 2: But now 10, 12 years later of me, now the
46:25
Speaker 2: new generation that comes Gen Z ke baad or whatever,
46:28
Speaker 2: Gen Alpha, these guys are not going to be easy.
46:32
Speaker 2: I am just a small reflection of what's coming. But
46:36
Speaker 2: because I grew up in a different way and I
46:40
Speaker 2: was born this way and I sit a lot with
46:42
Speaker 2: people who are my father's age also and kids who
46:45
Speaker 2: are 16 also so I have sat with different people
46:48
Speaker 2: from different walks of life musicians from different walks of
46:51
Speaker 2: life and I have the understanding that what's coming they're
46:54
Speaker 2: not gonna they're gonna not be this easy they're gonna
46:58
Speaker 2: fight for their stuff.
46:59
Speaker 4: Amal I have one question left for you And it's
47:03
Speaker 4: something that I think will tie in personally for you.
47:06
Speaker 4: And it's a question.
47:07
Speaker 2: When you're going to put this out, this interview is
47:09
Speaker 2: really going to blow up.
47:10
Speaker 4: It's going to blow up, brother.
47:11
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
47:12
Speaker 4: I love it.
47:13
Speaker 2: I think you'll have to quit Instagram.
47:16
Speaker 4: No, brother. Gladly. Bring it on. So, Amal, Mike, I
47:19
Speaker 4: love to ask this question to all the great artists
47:22
Speaker 4: out there. And I've never got the same answer. It's
47:25
Speaker 4: been a very interesting one. In fact, for you specifically,
47:27
Speaker 4: this could be a really cool one. I want you
47:31
Speaker 4: to give advice to that 16-year-old kid that used to
47:36
Speaker 4: stand outside the studios and wait for his moment. There
47:41
Speaker 4: are so many people out there like that, that wish
47:45
Speaker 4: they had gotten some advice or they'd gotten some encouragement
47:49
Speaker 4: along the way. And I'm not going to ask you
47:51
Speaker 4: to talk to other people, because that's been done. My
47:54
Speaker 4: question to you is... What advice would you give the
47:59
Speaker 4: 16-year-old version of yourself that used to stand out there
48:04
Speaker 4: waiting for his chance?
48:08
Speaker 2: I would just tell him, you have no idea how
48:10
Speaker 2: courageous you are today. You have no idea how much
48:15
Speaker 2: of success was waiting for you. And... I would tell him,
48:19
Speaker 2: stay innocent because that's what has helped you become whatever
48:22
Speaker 2: you are today. Because that innocence of that young boy
48:26
Speaker 2: and the purity has only managed to make me... People
48:31
Speaker 2: may be fans of my music. People may be fans
48:35
Speaker 2: of what sometimes artists wear or look like. But people
48:38
Speaker 2: are today fans of your heart, your soul, your purity.
48:43
Speaker 2: There are kids today, I want to tell that 16-year-old
48:46
Speaker 2: that I'm glad you didn't give up. And you don't
48:50
Speaker 2: need to give up because there's great things coming for you.
48:52
Speaker 2: It's just 20 years away, but it's there. It's there.
48:55
Speaker 2: At 36 today, I would say I'm the youngest, most successful,
48:59
Speaker 2: most loved, most respected, not in the industry maybe, but
49:03
Speaker 2: in public, in people, in the masses. The kind of
49:06
Speaker 2: love and adulation I have as a music composer and
49:08
Speaker 2: my brother has as a singer is unbelievable. But it's
49:12
Speaker 2: that 16-year-old who needs to know that it's okay. It's okay.
49:16
Speaker 2: You know, that kid wanted to grow up so fast
49:18
Speaker 2: to fulfill his father's dream to make his brother into
49:21
Speaker 2: a superstar that he deserved to be that he forgot
49:24
Speaker 2: his childhood so I would tell him to live a
49:26
Speaker 2: little not stand too long for too many hours maybe
49:29
Speaker 2: stand for 4 hours and go 4 hours swim chill
49:33
Speaker 2: have some time play some cricket You know, these are
49:35
Speaker 2: things that I have, I've been a sportsman all my life.
49:38
Speaker 2: I think I miss those days. Right now, I'm living
49:42
Speaker 2: the 16-year-old Amal Malik's dream. I think I'm talking to
49:45
Speaker 2: him and you're still talking to him only. The 36-year-old
49:48
Speaker 2: has never aged. I'm still 16. I wear my heart
49:51
Speaker 2: on my sleeve.
49:51
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
49:52
Speaker 2: But I would tell that kid to just hang in
49:54
Speaker 2: there and just wait. There's so much greatness coming for you.
49:59
Speaker 4: Amal, I wanted to thank you for your time today.
50:02
Speaker 4: This has been one of my favorite conversations that I've
50:05
Speaker 4: had on the show.
50:05
Speaker 2: I hope so. You have been so open.
50:09
Speaker 4: You have been so kind. You have been so inspirational
50:12
Speaker 4: to my audience. And most importantly, so authentic to them.
50:16
Speaker 4: And so, Amal, I want to thank you. And before
50:19
Speaker 4: we go, I want to play this song. So if
50:23
Speaker 4: you don't mind, sir, can you just please introduce this
50:25
Speaker 4: to our audience?
50:27
Speaker 2: Okay. I'll do it the right way. Do it. Okay, America,
50:33
Speaker 2: this is me, Amal Malik, the music composer of the
50:36
Speaker 2: song Yeh Awaarapan, which is written by Rashmi Virag, sung
50:41
Speaker 2: by Arijit Singh and me, and from the movie Awaarapan
50:44
Speaker 2: 2 featuring Imran Hashmi, directed by Nitin Kakkar, produced by
50:48
Speaker 2: Vishesh Bhatt, presented by Mukesh Bhatt. On Sony Music, now
50:52
Speaker 2: to the world.
50:54
Speaker 4: Amal, thank you so much, brother. What a great two
50:57
Speaker 4: days of conversations with you. Ladies and gentlemen, here is
51:01
Speaker 4: Yeh Avarapan by Amal Malik and Arijit Singh.
51:05
Speaker 10: My life's journey has been lost.
51:11
Speaker 17: You have been separated from this heart There is no.
51:17
Speaker 10: Thirst This is all I have, this is all I
52:06
Speaker 10: have This is all I have.
52:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
52:55
Speaker 10: Ooh Ooh Ooh.
52:58
Speaker 17: Ooh Har khushi kho gayi dard pehjaan hai.
54:15
Speaker 18: Yeah How cool was that conversation with Amal Malik?
55:19
Speaker 4: The song is called Yeh Avarapan. The top songs of
55:24
Speaker 4: the year in all of India in 2026. Arijit Singh,
55:30
Speaker 4: Amal Malik. I really enjoyed that conversation, even from a
55:35
Speaker 4: personal perspective. And I hope you did too over these
55:39
Speaker 4: last couple of days. Shout out to Amal Malik. And
55:44
Speaker 4: let me tell you guys what you just heard. You
55:47
Speaker 4: heard a 16-year-old standing outside a gate in Mumbai with
55:50
Speaker 4: a keyboard and no songs. The Vishesh Films gate. Mukesh
55:55
Speaker 4: and Mahesh Bhatt. The house that gave India Ashiki. He
55:59
Speaker 4: watched young directors walk in and Imran Hashmi walk out
56:03
Speaker 4: and told himself, the day that gate opens and I
56:06
Speaker 4: get to play one song, I've arrived. People hear the
56:10
Speaker 4: surname Malik. and assumed the gate opened for him. His
56:15
Speaker 4: grandfather worked with the butt's father in the 50s, and
56:19
Speaker 4: his uncle in the 70s and 80s, his father in 2001.
56:24
Speaker 4: The call still took him 20 years. You heard what
56:28
Speaker 4: those 20 years held. A debut with Salman Khan's attachment
56:32
Speaker 4: that tanked. 2014, the family losing the house and both cars.
56:39
Speaker 4: A phone call to his masi in New Zealand saying
56:42
Speaker 4: he'd come work at the local McDonald's or even a
56:45
Speaker 4: gas station. And nine months later, Suraj Dubahe drops. Then
56:50
Speaker 4: 12 years go by, almost 143 songs, and Yeh Avarapan happens.
56:57
Speaker 4: Written with Rashmi Virag, from a very dark place, presented
57:01
Speaker 4: by Mukesh Bhatt. Number one in the country. The gate,
57:06
Speaker 4: finally from the inside. In his words, all 20 years
57:10
Speaker 4: of that pain are in that one song. And he
57:13
Speaker 4: has a line for it. Before your time and before
57:21
Speaker 4: your fate, nobody gets anything. Then you heard what he
57:25
Speaker 4: did once he was inside. He told you what a
57:28
Speaker 4: hit actually pays a composer in India, calling talking about
57:32
Speaker 4: it a villainous job. Said it cost him films, and
57:37
Speaker 4: he said it anyway. He admitted the only reason he
57:40
Speaker 4: could earn a living on a stage is that he
57:42
Speaker 4: can actually sing, and asked what happens to the composer
57:45
Speaker 4: who can't. He started a label for the kids, who
57:49
Speaker 4: can't get into the big lobbies. But here's what I
57:52
Speaker 4: want you to sit with. Most people who finally get
57:56
Speaker 4: into the room spend the rest of their lives protecting
57:59
Speaker 4: their seat. Twenty years to get in through that gate,
58:02
Speaker 4: and the first thing he does on the other side
58:05
Speaker 4: is hold it open. And when I asked what the
58:08
Speaker 4: 36-year-old says to the 16-year-old still standing at the gate,
58:12
Speaker 4: he said, Oh, don't worry. It's going to get much better.
58:16
Speaker 4: Beyond your wildest dreams. Then he introduced his own number
58:20
Speaker 4: one song to America. Next year, his first independent album.
58:26
Speaker 4: Anjane Safarpar. His name on the door this time. Amal Malik.
58:32
Speaker 4: So give him his flowers. And you heard it here
58:35
Speaker 4: on the bridge. I really enjoyed the last couple of days.
58:38
Speaker 4: I hope you guys did too here on the bridge.
58:41
Speaker 4: And we'll be back tomorrow with our regular Top 20
58:43
Speaker 4: Countdown show. I'm really excited about that. And on Monday,
58:47
Speaker 4: we'll be joined by Kalki Kaiklin. I'm really excited to
58:50
Speaker 4: talk to her about her brand new project. We'll talk
58:53
Speaker 4: to her about her journey, not only through Indian cinema,
58:55
Speaker 4: but now her new forays into the international world. Have
58:59
Speaker 4: a great day and we'll see you tomorrow.
59:06
Speaker 10: Thank you.
59:26
Speaker 17: Dil Ne Bhi Tumko Kahin Toh Zaroor Dekha.
59:31
Speaker 10: Hai Main Rozi Tera Chara Sunera Aakho Me Leke Jaga
59:42
Speaker 5: Thank you for watching.