Sonu Nigam recalls he ‘beautifully’ sang Subhanallah but Pritam picked Sreerama Chandra over him, reveals his reaction

Singer Sonu Nigam opened up about why he decided to work with music director Pritam again after his Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani snub. In a new interview, Sonu spoke about the ‘trend’ of making several artistes sing the same song for trial and then choosing one of them. The 48-year-old singer also revealed that singer Sreerama Chandra was chosen over him as the voice of the song Subhanallah. 

Sonu Nigam has thousands of songs across several languages to his credit. Subhanallah, eventually sung by Sreerama Chandra, was part of the 2013 film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Pritam was the music director of the film. Sreerama Chandra won Indian Idol season 5. Incidentally, Sonu was a judge on seasons 1, 2 and 9 of the reality show. 

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Sonu spoke about his call with Pritam a few months ago, asking him to come onboard for Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha. He said, “Pritam, very nicely he said, ‘Sonu you are very special to me. I have a very special connection with you because you sang in my debut. You’re a part of my debut. I’ve much respect for you. I don’t want, and it happens nowadays, that a song is sung by multiple people and then one is chosen from there’. Now, this is the trend but I don’t want to be a part of that. Pritam also told me the same thing, ‘This is why I’m asking you to be a part of a song that will not be sung by any other singer’. This was Aamir’s decision that ‘Sonu Nigam will sing this song’. So since the producer and star has said, so now it won’t be that ‘Let us make Sonu also sing the song and then compare’.”

“So Pritam spoke to me lovingly and I really respect that. He said that I won’t tell you to sing for a track where I know it will be sung by eight other singers. What if your song isn’t made a part of the film! Because I had sung the song Subhanallah, the last song for Pritam. When the song in my voice wasn’t kept, I told Pritam: ‘Don’t tell me again’. According to me, I sang the song beautifully. But the song was in Sreerama Chandra’s fate so he got it. That’s okay. I don’t mind if anyone else sings. I didn’t ask, did I tell, ‘Give me the song? Keep calling me? Keep trying with me?’ No, I don’t want to.”

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Sonu has predominantly worked in Hindi and Kannada films and has also sung tracks in Odia, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri and other Indian languages. Some of Sonu’s all-time hits include Mai Agar Kahoon, Hans Mat Pagli, Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin, Do Pal and Sandese Aate Hai.