The Hindu Business Line : Bathroom singers? Pay and go on record

WANT to discover the singer in you? There is help - Showbiz Enterprises & Studios at Wadala, a Mumbai suburb, gives you a chance to record your voice on Hindi film tracks, but at a cost.

Nandi Duggal, 72, is the dynamic entrepreneur who has set up a studio offering re-recordings of the background music of Hindi film songs. "I have recordings of 2,100 Hindi film songs. Every year, we have been adding new songs to our records," says Duggal.

What amazes him is that 70 per cent of his clientele are those who want to record their voice on a Hindi film track for a lark. "Only 30 per cent of my clients are strugglers and want to make it as a singer," he points out. Singer Anaida of the Indipop world was one of his clients who recorded at his studios. Another startling fact is that most of his clients want to record their voice on old Hindi film tracks.

"I get people from all walks of life. There is money in this business," he affirms. Duggal, a singer himself, helps his clients to master the skill of playback singing: "It is one thing to learn music, but executing it can be difficult."

Duggal had nursed the hope of becoming a singer. As that was not to be, he began to organise musical shows overseas. The first overseas trip that came his way was one to Africa way back in 1956. "I got Talat Mehmood and C.H. Atma to come on this trip. We travelled to Mombassa in Kenya aboard a ship," he recalls. Duggal has done 1,300 shows abroad.

Organising shows was no cakewalk. "Too many problems would crop up. I had to organise everything," he said.

He did a number of shows with renowned playback singers like Mohamed Rafi, Manna De, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, and Mukesh across many countries, including the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, British Guyana and Surinam. "It took me two years to convince Kishore Kumar to join us on these shows,'' he explained. Shows with Kishore Kumar were immensely popular as he was an actor too. Duggal himself would pitch in as a singer for songs of K.L Saigal, C.H. Atma and Hemant Kumar.

However, stringent restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India at that time did put a block on earning potential from the overseas shows, Duggal said. "Anyway, all of this ended in 1983 when I developed heart problems,'' he said. But that was to open up a new chapter in his career. He set up Showbiz Enterprises to enable wannabe singers to find a toe-hold in the competitive world of Bollywood playback singing.

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