MUMBAI: Composer Amaal Mallik considers Arijit Singh the best singer in India, but feels his brother Armaan is the biggest superstar singer in the country.
“I realised with time that in our whole family there is just one singer who is credible and that is Armaan, who is a craft singer, who is trained, who understands the dynamics of every song, (and) with every composer he sings differently,” said Amaal Mallik, also a singer.
Further praising his little brother, Amaal Mallik said: “Knowing all that at the age of 23 or 24 is difficult. He (Armaan) has seen the whole grind. I think his life deserves a biopic. At 11, he started. No one from a musical family or lineage would go to ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs’ and start out from there. We never really got a break.”
Amaal Mallik added, “We both have clawed our way to success. Obviously, there’s a foot in the door moment that we’re Daboo Malik’s kids. Armaan starting from doing voice overs in ads to now standing in Times Square with a billboard, you gotta give it to him.”
“India’s best singer for me is Arijit Singh, but India’s biggest superstar singer is Armaan Malik. With due respect to everyone, he has taken Indian pop to global pop. At 25 when you’re in Times Square and you still are the man that he is, you could’ve gone crazy with that kind of success, the adulation from women,” Amaal added.
Even though there is a lot of love for each other, the two brothers are poles apart.
“Me and my brother being chalk and cheese, when we were starting out in ‘Jai Ho’, dad said ‘do you want to do it together or separately, because you both are too different, I don’t know how long you’ll be able to deal with each other’. My father also said that ‘you both are very good in your own crafts, he’s a very good singer, Amaal you’re not a good singer, you’re a soulful singer, you’re not a trained singer, but you’re a good composer and you’ve got your heart in the right place. So you both go on different journeys’,” said Amaal Mallik during an episode of “Talking Music”.