Salim Merchant has validated Sonu Nigam’s statements on the functioning of the music industry.

Sonu Nigam’s claims of persistent favouritism and two big music companies controlling the Indian music industry have initiated a debate among singers and composers. While some disagree with what Nigam has said in his latest vlogs, others like Adnan Sami, Monali Thakur and Alisha Chinai feel the same way about the functioning of the music industry.

The latest one to validate Sonu Nigam’s statements is singer-composer Salim Merchant from the music composer duo Salim–Sulaiman. Salim agreed that the music companies mentioned by Nigam have certain favourite singers and composers with whom they work with.

“It is not just the singers the composers are also going through a tough time. There is definitely that favouritism for certain artistes and composers, which these labels work with,” Salim who is popular for songs like “Shukran Allah”, “Kurbaan Hua”, “Marjaawan” and others, told Hindustan Times.

The trend of multiple composers for a film album has become a common practice in Bollywood. But, Salim Merchant says he, along with many other music composers, are not happy with the trend. However, there are a few who give in to the terms and conditions of the music companies and composes one song for a movie.

Deliberating on it more, Salim said, “Sonu Nigam has not said anything wrong. Whatever he has said is the truth. There are singers who get called and they get dumped later on. There are so many directors who want to work with composers like ourselves, but when it reaches the record labels, they have their own conditions and they feel they cannot work with us.”

Salim Merchant also shared his personal experience when he along with Sulaiman Merchant were removed from a project because the music label had some “vendetta” against them. “Sulaiman and I had worked on a project with a new director. The music turned out so good that it helped them get a really big actor on board. Then they took it to a big production house/record company, and they said, ‘we love the film, but please change the composers.’ They have some personal vendetta against us, I don’t know why. It is about time that people find about it,” Salim shared.