Sumit Kaul Makes Singing Debut With Film Hamid

Jyothi Venkatesh

Sumit Kaul is making his singing debut with the film Hamid and he couldn’t be happier. Taking about how he bagged the opportunity, he says, “This was a pleasant surprise. The Director, Aijaz Khan actually knows me for a while so he knew that I'm a singer. After we had shot the film, they actually saw the scenes between my character Rehmat and his son. Although the number of scenes were limited and screen time was less, they just saw this electric connection and chemistry between our two characters. They decided to include a song to add more fragrance to it. It’s a beautiful Kashmiri song that’s  philosophical & spiritual in its essence. Aijaz sir called me and he told me that they are planning to dub the song and picturise it on me and the child. I loved the idea as it would be the first time that a song would be picturised on me and that too in a film. I was extremely excited. While in the studio I asked him if I could try my hand at the song and Eijaz sir said that he would hear me out. I had just sung the first line and he was like, ‘That's it! This works completely.’ He ensured that I sang the entire song and it's just come out so beautifully.”

The actor comes from a strong singing background and would love to sing professionally as well. “As a young child, it was not a choice that I had as my mom ensured that we were constantly trained in singing. Initially, she trained us for a long time and then as we grew older, we got trained at Suresh Wadkar ji's academy 'Ajivasan'. Then, finally, we spent quite a few years training from our Guru Mahendrajeet Singh. I did not pursue music as a profession, but I was constantly training in music, in Indian classical and Indian vocal. My music training has definitely been of a lot of advantage to me as far as my voicing career is concerned and now in this film also,” he says.

He adds, “I would be open to more singing opportunities. It's just something I haven't very aggressively pursued but if after hearing this song and after seeing this movie, people want to use my voice as a singer, I would be most happy. If it actually leads to people wanting me to sing my own songs, that would be even amazing. It's a skill I have developed over the years and if it comes to use in my profession, or just as a singer, I would be really happy about it.”

Ask him who his favourite singers are, and he says, “I don't particularly have any favourites as far as music or the kind of music is concerned. I'm able to hear anything, I mean I can listen to very traditional Indian classical music and enjoy it thoroughly and at the same time, I can listen to rock and enjoy that too. But I think my heart generally lies with Indian music. I am more drawn towards either classical or folk. My all-time favourite singer is Lata Mangeshkar ji. She is just mind-blowing. What she has been able to achieve in playback singing is incredible and you can't imagine anybody else having done that or being able to do it. In the current breed, I enjoy listening to Sonu Nigam. I have great regard for Arijit Singh as a singer.”

For more Bollywood updates, follow Bollyy!