Abhay Jodhpurkar: Stop Asking Singers to Copy Arijit Singh

National Award-winning singer Abhay Jodhpurkar has sung across Hindi and South Indian cinema, and won the National Award for “Navsachi Gauri Majhi” from Gharat Ganpati. Yet in sessions, he says, he is still handed a simpler instruction: sound like someone else.

Speaking to Variety India, Jodhpurkar said he has been told, “You should sing like Arijit Singh,” and shown AI-generated samples in Singh’s voice as the desired benchmark for a song.

The reference track has become a template

Jodhpurkar can emulate another artist’s style, but he argues that copying should not replace interpretation. “It’s like a template they want to follow because they think it’s cooler and sounds better,” he said. In playback singing, he says, the song should decide the voice.

He has pushed back in the room. When played material in Arijit Singh’s voice and asked if he could match it, his answer was direct: I can, but let me render it my way so I can do the song justice.

No need for another Arijit, Shreya or Sunidhi

Jodhpurkar questioned the industry’s search for the “next Arijit Singh.” As he told the publication: “Why copy another artiste who is already so good? You don’t need another Shreya Ghoshal or Sunidhi Chauhan.”

His point is that familiar voices are already distinctive. Copying them does not give a new singer an identity; it makes the new singer a stand-in. He added that artists should not be pitted against one another, because there is room for everyone.

Why the pyramid hurts fans, too

When playback is built like a pyramid, a few voices sit at the top and the rest are asked to echo them. For listeners, that can flatten the sound of a soundtrack. A new song should introduce a character, a mood or a texture, not just remind you of a hit from another film.

• Stop using a successful voice as the default brief.
• Cast a singer for the scene, the character and the song’s demand.
• Make room for individual timbres instead of asking singers to copy established stars.

Originality as the next big change

“The next big change should be originality and being true to ourselves instead of copying other artists that are already interesting,” Jodhpurkar said. He wants singers to build a compelling body of work while challenging the expectations placed on them.

His comments land at a moment when digital tools make it easier than ever to reproduce or simulate a familiar vocal quality. That makes the argument for originality less romantic and more practical: if everyone can copy, the singers who last will be the ones who are unmistakably themselves.

Source: The Times of India