Vinod Rathod nixes remix funda

“S bole to superb singer, that’s how I would like to be remembered as,” says Vinod Rathod, whose title song from Bollywood blockbuster Munnabhai MBBS had rocked the nation just recently.

Rathod was in town for a performance at the concluding day of the fortnight-long Lok Kala Shilp Mela on UP Sangeet Natak Akademi premises where HT Lucknow Live caught up with him for a rendezvous.

“Zamaanat, a film starring the Big B and Karisma Kapoor, along with Munnabhai LLB (a sequel to Munnabhai MBBS) are two of my upcoming film projects. Zamaanat had earlier been shelved, but everything is now back on track and the film will hit the screens very soon,” says the singer.

Speaking about the current trend of remixes, music videos, private albums and talent hunts, Rathod is straightforward,” I have never been in favour of all this. Remixes take the soul out of the original compositions, music videos promote titillation and the increasing number of talent hunts have overkilled and diluted the entire concept of such hunts, though some of the earlier talent hunts have given the industry some resounding talent. Piracy is another problem which is killing the industry.” 

Speaking about stiff competition from all the Kishore Kumar clones, Rathod disagrees, “Nobody is a clone in this industry.   One can’t survive by just being a clone. We may idolise someone like Kishoreda (I am one of his greatest fans and remember most of his numbers by heart), but are not his clones. I believe that everybody has a place in this industry and can survive with talent and hard work,” says this member of the musical Rathod family. Brothers Shravan Rathod (of the famous Nadeem-Shravan musical duo) and Roop Kumar Rathod with his wife Sonali are all in the same profession.

“Music runs in the blood of the Rathod family. In fact, Shravan’s sons Sanjeev and Darshan are an upcoming composer duo and it is always a great pleasure singing for them, as well as Shravan,” quips Vinod, who has also sung for TV serials, as well as filmi and non-filmi songs in other languages like Gujarati etc.
”I have sung for DD serials like Yug, Cinevista’s Junoon and Chandrakanta. In fact in Chandrakanta, Nirjaji (producer Nirja Guleri) gave me a brief that the serial is based on a princess’ life and I immediately agreed as the songs were melodious. I have always considered melody to be my top priority and thus I consider ‘Maula’, which I recorded for a non-film private album, as my most melodious number though it was not a hit.”

Rathod later regaled the audience with some of his popular numbers like ‘Koi na koi chahiye’ from Deewana, ‘Chupana bhi nahi aata’ from Baazigar, along with a couple of other songs from the same film as well as ‘Chann Chaan’ from Munnabhai MBBS and the title song from the Bollywood hit.