This year in January, when the list of Padma awardees was announced, veteran singer Suresh Wadkar wasn’t surprised to know that he was being awarded the Padma Shri. He was happy and somewhat relieved that he was finally chosen for the long-awaited honour and recognition. The singer, who was in Delhi to receive the award recently, took out some time before the award ceremony to share why he feels that the recognition came his way rather late, why he is selective about his work, and his experience of being part of singing reality shows.

The singer says, “I am getting the Padma award at the age of 67. I think I should have gotten it earlier. I was expecting that as I have been working in the music industry for 47 years, par der aaye durust aaye. I am happy to receive this honour now. I do not know what is the criteria for selection, if it is popularity or seniority, but I have seen artistes much younger than me getting it. Whenever January would come, I would tend to look in the newspaper for Padma announcement and the list of awardees. Even people would call me and ask, ‘Yaar tumko kyun nahi milta?’, and I would say, ‘May be I am not that senior or popular.’ But finally I have it now.”

The singer, who has songs from movies like Sadma, Masoom, Prem Rog and Chandni, among others to his credit, now keeps busy with his albums in different languages and stage shows. Ask him why he is selective about his work in Hindi cinema, and he says, “New music directors have come on the scene now. Earlier music directors were very particular while writing songs. They would choose the singer who could do justice to the song. Now new directors have a different thought process. Abhi koi bhi gaana koi bhi gaa sakta hai, yeh nahi hai ki woh theek gaayega ki nahi. The one who is popular gets to sing the song. Now three to four music directors work in one film, kaun sa gaana kisne banaya pata bhi nahi chalta. So I do work now, but it is limited.”

He adds that the other reason he is selective about his work is that “most songs being made today hardly have any recall value.” He says, “Earlier songs used to be situational and would reflect everyone’s life. Today we have item songs with samosa and jalebi, aisa lagta hai koi restaurant wala gaana bana raha hai. Where is the connection?”

Wadkar says that one reason why today we have fewer examples of movies that are known for their music is that “singers are pre-decided.” He says that “groupism, nepotism, lobbying… call it anything, par yeh hain, aap unke group mein ghus nahi sakte ho. Earlier I don’t think there was any favouritism. As the song would unfold, the music director would have the singer on his mind. Earlier, a song would decide the singer, but now the singer is decided first, and then comes the song because singer ko bola hota hai ki I will give you a chance to sing. Yeh toh apni kalaa ke saath dhokha hua. There are so many good singers like Shaan, KK and Sonu Nigam, but how many songs are they singing?”

The singer has been part of reality shows, like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs, but over the years, he has distanced himself from reality shows. “I had a good experience with Sonu Nigam as a judge beside me. I think we were genuine on the show. We never followed what the channel would tell us. I would often get into fights with directors, they would whisper to me ki yeh uska beta hai, ya rickshaw chalane wale ka beta hai, and I would say that this is not related to the person’s talent. I stopped doing reality shows because I can’t be one of those judges jinko har ghadi camera apne uppar chahiye and they rush to the stage every minute.”