Arijit Singh shocked the music industry and the public on Tuesday night when he announced his retirement from playback singing. “I am happy to announce that I will not be accepting any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I will be canceling. It was a wonderful journey,” he wrote on social media.
Certainly, Arijit has been at this consistently for over a decade, as he lends his voice to at least a dozen songs every year. Show this: this year, precisely in January, six songs have been released that feature his voice. One of them is a song that doesn’t belong in a movie: the title track from Salim-Sulaiman’s album Sukoon 2.0. The other five are from movies, and a couple of them even top the charts.
These include “Sitaare” from Sriram Raghavan’s period war drama Ikkis, “Ghar Kab Aaoge”, the reprized version of Border’s (1997) iconic song “Sandese Aate Hain” from Anurag Singh’s hit period war drama Border 2, “Sunhari Kirne” from Gandhi Talks and “Hum Toh Tere Hi Liye The” from Vishal Bhardwaj’s upcoming romantic thriller. O’Romeo.
However, Arijit’s latest released song is the patriotic anthem “Maatrubhumi” from Apoorva Lakhia’s upcoming military drama Battle of Galwan, filmed in Salman Khan. Arijit hangs up his boots after singing for Salman and his life comes full circle, given the well-documented 12-year feud between the actor and the singer.
How did the feud between Salman and Arijit start?
Arijit was at his peak in 2014, having lent his voice to countless chart hits, of course, not allowing him any time to rest. This was the time when he sang popular songs like “Suno Na Sangemarmarmar” from Youngistaan, “Palat – Tera Hero Idhar Hai” and “Shanivaar Raati” from Main Tera Hero, “Mast Magan” from 2 States, “Raat Bhar” from Heropanti, “Muskurane” from CityLights, “Shaayraana” from Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, “Humdard” from Ek Villain, “Samjhawan” from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, “Sukoon Mila” from Mary Kom, “Manwa Laage” from happy new yearand “Jaise Mera Tu” from Happy Ending.
Salman was hosting an awards show that year and invited Arijit to receive the award for Best Male Playback Singer for his love anthem “Tum Hi Ho” from Mohit Suri’s hit 2013 romantic drama, Aashiqui 2. While Arijit looked visibly exhausted, Salman joked with his trademark irreverent humor: “soye nahi kya?” (Didn’t you sleep or what?), to which Arijit candidly replied:Aap logo is not a diya.(You made me sleep). While it seemed like friendly onstage banter at first, it turned into something more in the years that followed.
The Sultan controversy
Tension arose in 2016 when Arijit issued a public apology on social media before the release of Salman’s film, Ali Abbas Zafar’s sports drama Sultan. He had recorded the popular romantic song “Jag Ghoomeya”, filmed with Salman and Anushka Sharma, for the film, but it was another version, sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, that made it into the film and album, supposedly thanks to Salman.
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“I never insulted you… I tried to apologize so many times. Please don’t delete the song I sang for Sultan. Let me retire with that song in my library,” Arijit then wrote, quite prophetically. While he deleted the post later, it had already caused a stir on the internet, with netizens wondering if Salman had actually kicked Arijit out of his film and was actively ensuring that the singer didn’t get enough work in the Hindi film industry due to the criticism he leveled at him a couple of years before that. However, even though Salman did not clear things up, Arijit continued to work hard.
Salman, Arijit’s recent reunion
It took seven years for Salman and Arijit to bury their hatchet and finally collaborate on a couple of songs in Manish Sharma’s 2023 spy thriller Tiger 3, also produced by Yash Raj Films, Aditya Chopra’s label, which ironically had backed Sultan. Arijit sang both the romantic song “Ruaan” and the end credits dance number “Leke Prabhu Ka Naam”, filmed with Salman and Katrina Kaif, and Salman even touted it as their maiden collaboration during the promotions.
But it wasn’t until last year, on an episode of Bigg Boss 19 Weekend Ka Vaar, that Salman finally addressed the dispute with Arijit. “Arijit aur main bahut achhe dost hai. Woh, misunderstanding the mere side is huyi thi. Uske baad usne gaane bhi kiye mere liye. Tigre 3 mein kiya usne, aage Galwan. (Arijit and I are very good friends. That misunderstanding was on my part. After that, he also sang songs for me in Tiger 3 and now, in Battle of Galwan).
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Days after Salman’s confession, the makers of Battle of Galwan released the first song of the film – Matrubhumi, sung by Arijit, written by Sameer Anjaan, composed by Himesh Reshammiya and shot with Salman. It felt like Arijit had completed an entire arc, an unfulfilled wish, and checked a box on his bucket list before he could hang up his boots from the playing song. And then he did it.