Salim Merchant speaks up, says what Sonu Nigam has said is the truth

Popular singer Sonu Nigam recently lashed out at a 'mafia' ruling the music industry and said no one should be surprised if some musicians also end their lives. Nigam said, without naming anyone, that two persons and two companies rule the roost in the music industry and decide who can sing and who cannot, forcing even composers and filmmakers to toe the line.

Following this, Nigam has been involved in a war of words with music label T-Series, which allegedly put up some people from the industry to badmouth Nigam. Earlier this week, singers Adnan Sami and Alisha Chinai came out in support of Nigam. Now music composer Salim Merchant, one half of the Salim-Sulaiman duo, has also spoken up for Nigam.

“It is not just the singers," Merchant said in an interview with the Hindustan Times newspaper, "composers are also going through a tough time. The record labels he is talking about have certain music directors and singers they work with. There are certain artistes they have signed. There is definitely that favouritism for certain artistes and composers which these labels work with.”

In his video, Nigam had said that there have been occasions when he has recorded a song for a composer only to find out that he has been replaced by some other singer when the song is released. Merchant said this is true.

“Sonu Nigam has not said anything wrong," the composer said. "Whatever he has said is the truth. There are singers who get called and then get dumped. There are so many directors who want to work with composers like us, but when it reaches the record labels, they have their own conditions and they feel they cannot work with us.”

Merchant shared a bitter personal experience with a music company. “Sulaiman and I had worked on a project with a new director," he recalled. "The music turned out so good that it helped them get a really big actor on board. Then they took it to a big production house/record company and they said, ‘We love the film, but please change the composers.’ They have some personal vendetta against us, I don’t know why. It is about time people find out about it.”