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Singer AP Dhillon spoke about having the leverage to refuse offers from Bollywood, and revealed why he hasn’t ever made an original song for a Hindi movie. He said that he came close once, and had even finalised a track for a film starring two A-listers, but the deal fell through at the last moment. AP said that he is upset with his fellow top-tier Punjabi artistes for not taking a stand against the Hindi film industry’s ‘exploitative’ ways, and for caving under pressure. In a Punjabi interview on the SMTV YouTube channel, AP said that he wants to set an example for those who will follow in his footsteps.
He said, “I’ll tell you why I’ve never done a Bollywood song yet. It’s only because I care for my people. It’s not about Bollywood. I want to set an example for my people. I told them that I’m happy to do a song for them, but they must first change the way they do business. For example, when a Punjabi artiste does a song for a Bollywood film, the producer owns the song, the remix rights, everything… They exploit the song and the artiste for their own profit. I put my foot down and said no.”
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AP said that he came close once, but the deal fell through. “I don’t want to take names, but a couple of huge actors said that they want my music in their movie. I made the song; we even had the scene in mind. But they want to own the song; they want the rights to the song; they want to exploit it. That’s not correct. So, I told them that until they change this, I can’t do a song with them. If I do it, then the junior artistes will also have to do it, and I don’t want them to do it.”
AP said that both the Punjabi music and the Hindi film industries must work hand-in-hand. “I don’t want a young artiste to lose out on their source of income by selling their hit song. I don’t want them to be exploited. But the only problem is that the other A-listers are still giving songs. Until they draw a line in the sand and say no, we won’t make progress. Because if I say no, then the Bollywood producers will simply go to the next big Punjabi artistes; there are only three or four of us anyway.”
In a past interview with Ranveer Allahbadia, AP said that he had burned bridges in Bollywood because of his stance. “I was offered movies, even to be in them, and to do records two years ago. I have been rejecting them for two years and burning my bridges. From one to another, just because I don’t want to be like the other sheep,” he said. AP didn’t name the fellow artistes he was referring to, but only Karan Aujla and Diljit Dosanjh are in the A-list of the industry along with him, and they have both done songs for Bollywood movies. AP will embark on an eight-city India tour beginning December.
