Pankaj Udhas: Importance of Music is Practically Zero in Bollywood

New Delhi: Renowned ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas, who recently launched his single album Khwaabon ki Kahaani, says that Bollywood is not paying much importance to music and that seems to have reduced its standards.

"Bollywood pays no importance to music. The importance of music has become practically zero in Bollywood. Songs in movies are used only to promote the film. They are not an integral part of the movie or the script anymore," said Mr Udhas.

"People used to listen to good music and poetry earlier, because the songs were woven into the script and were also quite relevant to the script. Nowadays, the songs in cinemas are not relevant to films at all. The standard of music has reduced to the level of pedestrians and there is nothing that we can do about it," Mr Udhas told IANS.

Mr Udhas, who is a renowned singer, has crooned several songs such as Chitthi Aayee Hai and Jiye toh jiye kaise.

His latest single Khwaabon ki Kahaani was launched on a music website, with the hope of reaching out to a larger audience and as an attempt to revive ghazals.

Mr Udhas also says that the lack of revenue in the world of music is hampering the quality. However, there is hope due to the presence of an online platform.

"Most of the audio labels have absolutely no revenues out of any music which they produce unless it is produced by Bollywood. This is because Bollywood has the money to spend. Due to lack of revenue, there is a serious dearth of novelty. The only things which can help are digital platforms," said the Chitthi Aayee Hai singer.

As far as his new album is concerned, the 64-year-old singer says that he liked the ghazal as soon as he heard it from lyricist Aalok Shrivastav. The song was recorded within a week.

"I was extremely excited about this recording as this is my first ghazal single. I have done albums all my life. It was during the recording of a television serial title track which I was composing, that Aalok Shrivastav narrated a ghazal that he had written. And I really liked it. We immediately recorded it and collaborated with an online music website. We also shot a video for the song so that we can connect with the younger audience," added Mr Udhas.