Abhijeet Sawant has opened up about the very different career paths he and Arijit Singh took after making their reality TV debuts in 2005. While Abhijeet became a familiar face across the country after winning Indian Idol Season 1, Arijit spent years working behind the scenes before eventually becoming one of the most recognised voices in Indian music.
Speaking to Filmygyan, Abhijeet recalled that he was considerably more popular than Arijit in the years immediately after the reality show. The singer said the two had entered the spotlight around the same time, but their journeys after that were very different.
“After 2005, Arijit stayed away from the limelight. For at least 10 years, call it a blessing in disguise, he went to the music studios and he worked with all the major music composers, not as a singer but as a producer, as a programmer,” he said.
Abhijeet, meanwhile, became a household name after winning Indian Idol in 2005. He took home Rs 1 crore as the winner and also got an album deal with Sony. Arijit, on the other hand, returned to working in music studios and spent years building his experience away from the spotlight.
“He went back to the basics and he started his journey again and no one knew him back then,” Abhijeet added.
Looking back, the singer said the difference in their popularity also meant that the pressure on them was not the same. According to him, while he was already being recognised by audiences, Arijit was quietly working with musicians and composers and waiting for his opportunity as a singer.
“If you compare him and me at that time, I was very popular, but he wasn’t. So the kind of pressure that I faced was very different than the pressure that he was facing. He worked a lot for those 10 years, and worked a lot with musicians and then he got his first big song,” he said.
For Abhijeet, Arijit’s breakthrough with Aashiqui 2 was also a matter of timing and destiny. Although Arijit had already sung Dil Sambhal Ja Zara in Murder 2, it was Tum Hi Ho that turned him into a major playback star.
“‘Tum Hi Ho‘ made Arijit ‘Arijit Singh’ and that song landing in the lap of any singer… It was all about destiny,” he said.
Abhijeet also said audiences often judge people based on how successful they appear, while every artist has a different journey.
“It is a flaw with the audience that we keep praising the one who is successful, but the ones we don’t know much about, we keep finding flaws in them. That’s not all. Everyone has their own journey. Everyone is trying their best to work, live their life. Let them,” he concluded.
