Singer Abhijeet Sawant, winner of the first ‘Indian Idol’, in a recent interview said that his career didn’t exactly turn out as he expected because he was always burdened with the tag of being a reality show winner.
Sawant won the first season of the reality show, defeating Amit Sena. He said that music directors would assume he had several offers and in turn never consider him for projects.
Sawant mentioned that this is like a curse which all the reality show contestants are stuck with, especially the winners. He then also talked about why other show winners like Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan have had a successful career but not him.
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He told Bollywood Hungama, “The playback industry offers a lot of opportunities, but at the same time, you need guidance and a godfather. You have to understand, in this industry, singers don’t have much power. We don’t have any control. I remember a story, I was struggling after Indian Idol, and I went for a meeting at a studio. A large crowd gathered outside, and the music director had to come and see what all the commotion was about. It’s a strange situation to be in; on the one hand you’ve come asking for work, but on the other, people are desperate to catch a glimpse of you.”
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On numerous occasions, music directors assumed that Sawant wasn’t facing any problems. Sawant said, “This is the main issue. People are a little hesitant to accept reality show contestants, especially winners.”
Talking about careers of others like Ghoshal and Chauhan, Sawant said, “They came in the batch before Indian Idol. Even Kunal Ganjawala. Reality shows were very different back then. And their shows never became as big as Indian Idol… This is the baggage and pressure that I, especially, have had to go through.”
Sawant has sung for films like ‘Aashiq Banaya Apne’, ‘Tees Maar Khan’ and ‘Dishoom’. His latest single was with Shahzeb Tejani titled ‘Tera Rishta’.
