EXCLUSIVE: Suresh Wadkar says Shravan Rathod was his childhood friend: He used to make very nice songs
Meanwhile, Suresh Wadkar launched his devotional YouTube Channel ‘Suresh Wadkar Bhakti’ on Hanuman Jayanti.
On Hanuman Jayanti yesterday, acclaimed singer Suresh Wadkar launched his devotional YouTube Channel - Suresh Wadkar Bhakti - with Maruti Stotra as its first offering. The Padma Shri recipient says that he couldn’t think of any better day than Hanuman Jayanti to introduce his new channel. “It will have a mix of devotional songs and mantras. I have anyway been doing a lot of devotional songs, so I decided to sing a few of my own compositions and those made by my students too and put it up on the channel,” Wadkar states.
Furthermore, he says that the quality of songs in Hindi films have also improved. “A while ago, we had got heavily influenced by the west, and a lot of gimmicky words were being used in the lyrics. Only one or two songs like these can get popular, but all of them cannot. However, the songs today are much more melodious and the music directors are working hard on it too. There was a time when Shankar-Jaikishan would compose 10 songs for a film, all of them would become super hits. Our own people have made records like these and we should never forget them,” says Wadkar.
However, he also states that some of the present music directors believe that a middle aged singer cannot lend his voice for younger actors. “We were born to sing. Yeh humare music directors ke misunderstanding ke hum shikar hai. But I have no complaints, whoever will invite me with love and respect, I’ll sing for them,” Wadkar adds.
He recently lost his close friend and music director Shravan Rathod. “I have worked a lot with them (Nadeem–Shravan), but after Aashiqui I didn’t sing much for them except for a small portion for a song in Raja Hindustani. When I heard about Shravan I felt really sad. He was my childhood friend. His father Pandit Chhaturbhuj Rathod and my Guruji were very good friends. So we used to do programmes together, where Shravan would come with his father and play the Dholak, while I would be with my teacher. Shravan was like my brother and respected me a lot. He was talented and used to make very nice songs,” Wadkar signs off.