’They pay us less, but demand so much more’

Kannada singers are irked with the industry's attitude towards them. The industry now pays local talent much less than they deserve but demand so much more in return

'They pay us less, but demand so much more'

Kannada singers are irked with the industry's attitude towards them. The industry now pays local talent much less than they deserve but demand so much more in return

Local singers in Bangalore are now expected to work for far less amounts of money even when their out-state counterparts are making the same amount as before. What's worse, artists used to cover up pronunciation mistakes and accent faults in songs are being paid a pittance for their talent.

Music director Veer Samarth, who is currently working on the movie Mandahasa says, "these producers ask for good quality singing while the budgets assigned to us are really small. A few days ago, a producer forced me to compose music for a really small amount and expected me to manage with a really small budget. Thankfully, a friend butted in and solved the issue after a lot of explanation and the producer finally gave in and increased the budget." "Recently I also had a bad experience with another well-known producer when he gave me much less money than he had promised. He invested more money in his present movie and thus my budget was affected. It's hard to work with such problems. It's almost partial. Like the present project doesn't matter that much," Samarth adds. "Personally I support Bollywood singers, but when you realise that they are ready to pay upto 35 lakhs for an item dancer you wonder why they cringe to release money for the music," he explains.

Musician Gurukiran also tells us, "The remuneration of Bollywood singers has remained the same, while local singers are usually paid much lesser. What's funnier is how we make the proper amount of money only if the movie's music is a success. That's really unfair too."

Kannada singer Supriya Aacharya adds, "Even famous producers don't pay new singers well, and several times I have not been paid because the producers did a clean sweep escape. This being a producer who had called me personally, do you understand how bad the situation is?"

Anuradha Bhat tells us more. "Most of the local singers are considered to be track singers and are used for common lyrics but the industry gives first preference to Mumbai singers, what's worse, I recently was shocked when Shreya Ghoshal's name was printed for a song that actually had my voice. Her voice was mixed in, yet because the industry prefers outside artists, I had to bear the brunt of being ignored."u00a0 The industry is facing quite a huge problem, especially with a blatant preference for outside talent. Industry experts hope the tide will change, but that's left for the outside observer to see and decide.

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