It’s a rather sombre day for lovers of Hindi film music, as playback singer Arijit Singh has announced that he is hanging up his boots and stepping away from Bollywood playback singing. On Tuesday evening, Arijit took to his private account on X to share the news. This announcement comes just days after the release of his latest song, “Maatrubhumi,” from Salman Khan’s upcoming film Battle of Galwan. He recently also sang the song “Hum Toh Tere Hi Liye The” from O Romeo by Vishal Bhardwaj.
Arijit wrote on X, “Hello, Happy New Year to all. I want to thank you all for giving me so much of love all these years as listeners. I am happy to announce that I am not gonna be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey.” He immediately followed up with another post, adding, “GOD has been really kind to me. I am a fan of good music and in future will be learning more and do more on my own as a small little artist. Thanks again for all your support.”
Arijit clarified that while he is stepping back from new playback assignments, he won’t stop making music and will still complete some pending projects. He wrote: “I still have to finish some pending commitments will finish them. So you might get some releases this year.”
As fans speculated about the reasons behind his decision, Arijit offered insight: “There is not one reason behind this, there are several reasons plus I have been trying to do this since a long time. Finally I have gathered the right courage. One of the reasons were simple, I get bored pretty quick, that’s why I keep changing arrangements of the same songs and perform them on stage. So here is the thing, I got bored. I need to do some other music to live.”
He added with candid excitement: “Another reason is I am excited to hear some singer come up and give me real motivation.” When asked by a fan whether he was just jumping and playing with emotions by tweeting this, Arijit firmly replied: “Not at all, I never wanna play with anyone’s emotions.” He also assured fans that while he is stepping away from Bollywood playback singing, he will remain deeply connected to music, particularly Indian classical music: “I am going to go back to Indian Classical Music. I wanna go back to making music. I wanna start again.”
Sharing a glimpse of his future plans, he added: “I will make my own music. Will come up with my music whenever I am ready.” With a touch of humor, he concluded: “Ab aayega maza!! (Now, there will be fun)”
Arijit Singh first rose to prominence more than a decade ago with Mohit Suri’s Aashiqui 2 and went on to deliver chart-topping hits in films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Tamasha, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Airlift and several others. Over the years, there has scarcely been a mainstream Hindi film without his voice in its songs.