A playback singer opens up to BT about her unpleasant experiences with composers Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya
Soumya Vajpayee (BOMBAY TIMES; October 25, 2018)

A playback singer, on condition of anonymity, exclusively told BT how Bollywood’s noted composer duo, Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya, who have composed songs in films like Hindi Medium, Shuddh Desi Romance, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Meri Pyari Bindu, harassed her until a couple of years ago. Here’s a first-person account: “They are extremely shrewd and sly when it comes to maintaining a fake image, but they are far from what they appear to be. They keep making sexual moves on girls. They have tried putting their dirty hands on a lot of girls and exploited them. It all started in February, 2014. They would call me to their studio at late hours, just to make me sing a scratch, and despite knowing that I am not comfortable, they would continue to make moves and comments that would embarrass me. Since I was a newcomer, I would go and sing for them for free, only for the love of music.

Jigar would frantically call me at nights, wanting to “see me” or “meet me only for five minutes,” even after clearly telling him that I’m only interested in meeting him for music-related work. This was after a couple of inappropriate sexual passes he made at me. No one else in the industry has made me feel so small and insignificant as they have. Other people I have worked with have always treated me with a lot of respect.

Once I was in the recording studio with Jigar, and without wasting much time, he pulled me towards him and tried to kiss me, saying, “Whenever I see you, I feel like grabbing you and this doesn’t happen with everyone.”

I was sadly shocked at the hypocrisy of a married man, who otherwise keeps posting pictures of his wife and kid on social media. Such a bloody hypocrite!

Sachin also made inappropriate passes at me with the hope that I might just be ‘available’ for him. I remember once he said something that made me really uncomfortable. I was recording a song, when he stopped everything, looked at me and said, “You know if I ever watch you perform on stage, I would love to come up and make love to you, in front of everyone, while you would be singing. I don’t care if anybody is watching.” Disgusting isn’t it?

Jigar once asked me, ‘Hey what do you think of a threesome – Sachin, me and you, if you are up for it?’ I was so disgusted by that statement that I decided to never work with them, nor stay in touch with such sexual predators. It has almost been two years now, but I have heard similar stories from my friends/colleagues about them.”

BT tried reaching out to Sachin-Jigar for a response, but there was no reaction from their end till the time of going to press