What appeared to have been a punctuation in his smooth sailing Bollywood music career eventually turned out to be a boon. The lockdown offering him a chance to step back from films and dabble in independent music instead, Jubin Nautiyal claims his audience “increased 10-fold”.

Asserting that the Internet’s reach is unparalleled, the singer, who recently released tracks like Lut gaye and Tujhe bhoolna toh chaaha, says, “Currently, 60 per cent of our population has access to the internet. Imagine what will happen when this number increases to 100. Our diverse population has different tastes, which means there’s an audience for every song.”

Emraan Hashmi-starrer Lut gaye, Nautiyal was told, was among T-series’ fastest growing numbers. Evidently then, a second collaboration would be on the cards. “Given the attention that the first one received, the next one has to be better. I am yet to sing the song because we are still working on arriving at the right one. The process involves the creation of a couple of songs, and then eliminating the ones that don’t work. Working in isolation [was an advantage]. An artiste knows that independent music must be a reflection of his or her journey. My audience will look out for my perception in my music, and not that of a hero. Hence, I can only make a mark if I reflect my reality. Among the things that I learnt while dabbling in independent music is that I want to try different genres. I thought I wouldn’t sing qawwalis or retro songs. But, in the last year, I sang different tracks, and that helped me get acquainted with my voice,” says the singer, who has only recently commenced performing live again.

Performing as many as 29 gigs in February 2020 alone, before the lockdown was imposed, Nautiyal says being restricted for nine months had him question his preparedness. “Since we were not performing for so long, we wondered if we were in good form. I have done two public shows [post the lifting of the lockdown]. One was for a crowd of 9,000 people. Another was a few days ago, for a college festival for 5,000 kids. Going before a crowd is fearsome, but we are taking all efforts to successfully hold concerts. We are playing to groups of 7,000 people in [stadiums] that can host 25,000. We ensure that nobody comes on stage, and limit unnecessary travels, heading straight to the concert, and back home.”

In the pipeline for him are films like Satyamev Jayate 2, starring John Abraham, and Prabhas-starrer Radhe Shyam. An album that was in the works has currently been deferred. “I don’t think this is the right time to release [an album]. Putting six songs together doesn’t make it an album. An album must have [character], and the songs must work together as a story, it must have musical synchronicity.”