Abhay Jodhpurkar on the 14-day shoot that kept him as SRK’s voice

Abhay Jodhpurkar has just won the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer for “Navasachi Gauri Mazi” from Gharat Ganpati. But in a new interview with Variety India, the singer returned to the moment that nearly stopped him from becoming a Hindi film voice at all.

The road to “Mere Naam Tu” was full of false starts

A.R. Rahman launched Jodhpurkar with “Godfather” in 2012, and the composer kept trying to open bigger doors. Still, several promising recordings never made it to the screen.

• Recorded for Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Kochadaiiyaan, but was replaced by Arijit Singh, Sonu Nigam or other established names.
• Already had more than 100 songs in the south, yet stayed an unfamiliar name in Hindi cinema.
• The repeated setbacks left him doubting whether he was the problem.

Then he moved to Bombay and met Ajay-Atul. They knew his south work and his cover of “Jeev Rangla” from Jogwa. What began as trial and prep material became the romantic centerpiece of Shah Rukh Khan’s 2018 film Zero.

A 14-day shoot, and a team that refused to blink

After the recording, the song was shot over 14 days. Jodhpurkar says Shah Rukh Khan felt “the voice suited him,” while Aanand L. Rai and Irshad Kamil were happy with the result.

Yet the labels were not. For a song that big, betting on an unknown Hindi playback singer looked like an unnecessary risk. Jodhpurkar calls it “the biggest song of the film” and says he was “completely unknown to the Hindi industry”; there was pressure from labels to bring in a big singer.

This time, Ajay-Atul, Rai and Kamil stood firm. They argued everyone had liked the track and it should be retained. Looking back, Jodhpurkar says, “Had they not taken that stand for me, I would have probably not been here now.”

Why this matters for Bollywood music fans

The story is a rare look into how Hindi film music actually gets filtered. Even when composers pitch a singer, producers and labels often default to familiar voices because they believe familiarity sells. Jodhpurkar says Pritam recommended him for projects, only for decision-makers to ask for more “energy,” “accents” or a “sick voice” instead.

For listeners, that means the playlist of filmi voices can stay narrower than the talent actually available. A song like Mere Naam Tu is the exception: a team chose the voice that fit the performance over the voice that looked safest on paper.

With his National Award for “Navasachi Gauri Mazi,” Jodhpurkar has now been recognised at the highest level. The singer’s journey makes a simple point — the next iconic playback voice is often hiding in a trial recording, waiting for someone to take a stand.

Source: The Times of India