With the fabulous song “Jai Ho’ from Slumdog Millionaire nominated for an Academy Award everyone expected that the singer of the song, Sukhwinder Singh, would be on stage to perform. However, it seems this is not the case. While it is true that AR Rahman contacted the singer about his visa and about coming down for a practice session Singh says that after that he heard nothing else.
Singh told TNN, “Around 20 days back, I got a call from AR Rahman’s office asking me to send my official documents for the visa. It took me three minutes to do the same. Rahman told me that I needed to fly down to Chennai for a practice session for a pre-Oscar programme on the 19th of this month in LA. But since there was no intimation from his side after that, I tried calling Rahman up. He didn’t take my calls. When he called me up, he was already in LA. Maybe, he thought that I would be feeling bad about it. He told me there would be a chain of shows on an American channel and that there would be no dearth of opportunities for me henceforth.”
The singer is not sure what happened but it seems it was a glitch in getting his visa and he went on to say, “And I’m sure Rahman is not the culprit. Someone must have played foul. Gulzarsaab too has faced a similar situation. I’m sure Rahman will explain when he comes back, but I’m not going to ask him anything.”
Though he is not going to be there to perform the song, he is still ecstatic that it got the nomination and said, “The number nominated in the original song category at the Oscars, is sung by me. That gives me a kick. Sadly, singers of all other numbers will be performing. People are asking me why I am in India now. Main kya bataun? Sab mujhe ullu banake bhaag gaye! It’s depressing to be left all alone to answer such questions. But then, I’ve my work here. I’ve just sung for Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminaay and am happy with the promos. Oscars ka raasta pata chal gaya hai mujhe… in the coming two years, I’m surely going to perform there. Just wait and watch!”
We are hoping that song does win the Oscar tonight, along with many more for Slumdog Millionaire! We will keep you informed about what does win and of course if we hear more about why he was not there to perform we will be sure to report it so watch this space for more!
