The recent news made by renowned playback singer Arijit Singh who declared he would no longer sing in Hindi films as a playback singer has rocked not only the world of Bollywood, but also the Indian music lovers. His reputation as the monopoly of the Hindi cinema soundtrack over a decade, his decision to quit receiving playback singing assignments is not only being viewed as a personal career choice, but also as a huge statement on the industry.

It is almost ironic that the retirement of Arijit has inadvertently turned out to be what veteran singer Shaan terms almost a year ago as a brutal slapstick to the metamorphosing clone culture of Bollywood when music composers just kept giving Arijit Singh or an approximation of his voice the nod again perhaps to the exclusion of originality and room to talent.

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Shaan himself had noted that over the past years a number of music producers were playing on the side of caution by selecting familiar voices, particularly that of Arijit since it was a sure way of achieving a commercial appeal. He said this trend made it more difficult to have unique and original voices which broke and succeeded.

As Arijit went out to social media and posted about his decision, he clarified that he did not make his decisions overnight. He said there were a mix of motivations which led to it such as his being creatively bored and a desire to take new musical paths. This reaction to fans and industry observers has been both disappointing and respectful and reflective, with some admitting that this is the end of an age in Bollywood music, and some concerned that this move would bring about more diversity and room to discover other musics and other singers.