Known and loved for his singing, comic acts and clean mimicry, the voice of Amitabh Bachchan, Sudesh Bhosale, at 62, is still busy with his regular stage performances, his music, his radio show on Kishore Kumar and more…
It’s been 31 years since the iconic number Jumma Chumma De De from Hum, sung by Sudesh Bhosale became a classic crowd favorite. When Amitabh Bachchan, on whom the song had been picturised, heard it for the first time, his initial response had been, ‘This is just like my voice but I don’t remember singing it’. “In fact, when Jaya Ji (Jaya Bachchan) heard the song, she was not ready to accept that Amit Ji had not sung this song!” reminisces Sudesh Bhosale.
“Even today, wherever I am in the world, I hear people still shout out to me, ‘Arre O Jumma!’ whenever I make a public entry. Laxmi ji-Pyare Bhai (Laxmikant-Pyarelal), Bakshi Sahab (Anand Bakshi), Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan), Chinni Prakash ji ko main jitna bhi Thank You kahoonga utna kam hai,” he says.
The incredible love and respect Sudesh Bhosale has garnered as a singer over the years, is astounding considering that he never formally learnt any music. “I know nothing of Sa Re Ga Ma,” he confesses.
Sudesh Bhosale’s mother, Suman Bhosale was a classical singer and his maternal grandmom, (Nani) was a classical artiste on All India Radio, Durgabai Shirodkar from the Agra Gharana. “Since my childhood, I have heard pure classical music, natya sangeet and Marathi Sugam Sangeet. My father was a painter. He painted film posters of all Rajshri Productions, V Shantaram’s films, for movies like Mughal-e-Azam, and others. And I had both art forms in me – music as well as painting. When I was 14, I joined my father’s studio as his assistant. I am a very good portrait artiste and from the age of 14 to 22 years, I worked dedicatedly with my father as a painter and never thought I would be a singer, or a mimicry artiste or a comedian.”
At his conservative, traditional Maharashtrian middle-class home, Bollywood music was totally banned. His father never liked those songs, so when he’d be at home, the kids would listen to classical ragas and as soon as he’d leave they would begin listening to songs like, Baar Baar dekho Hazar Baar dekho…
“I never learnt any singing but one day I imitated Saigal Saab, Sachin Da, Hemant da and my friends loved it. Word spread and people began to call me home to perform for events, pujas and birthdays. Then I also would be called to perform on stage during Ganpati. 70s – 80s had a lot of mimicry artistes who would mimic a lot of the older actors – but I was the first one to mimic Amitabh Bachchan. And they were all zapped,” he remembers.
In 1982, Sudesh Bhosale joined a famous orchestra group Melody Makers and began to do little performances on stage. “People came and told my parents to go and see what I was doing because at home I was a shy, silent and ghabraya hua bachcha. One day, my parents came and saw my performance at an auditorium and they noticed the love and appreciation my work got. How people would clap hard and do wolf whistles and scream ‘Once More’ at my performances. They never expected this from me and from then on mere Pitaji ka mann parivartan ho gaya, he changed. He began liking Bollywood singers like Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and he then encouraged me to go on. At around the same time the business of hand painted posters went down as digital posters gained popularity. I then told my father to stop working. Around 1986, when I met Asha ji for the first time she heard me singing SD Burman’s song from Amar Prem, Doli Mein Bithai Ke…’. She covered her face with her hands when I sang and when my song got over, when she removed her hands and I could see that she was weeping. Unke dono aankhon se aansu beh rahe the. She said, ‘I felt that Sachin Da was standing in front of me and singing this song.’”
Asha Bhosle then took Sudesh to RD Burman. “Pancham da also wept when he heard me sing SD Burman’s Sun Mere Bandhu. He said, ‘Arre tu toh mere baap ke aawaz mein gaata hai’.”
While Sudesh Bhosale got his first break in Bollywood thanks to RD Burman, as a playback singer way back in 1988 where he sang a duet penned by Gulshan Bawra, Holi Aayi Re, Aayi Re Aayi Holi Aayi in the action film Zalzala, he actually found his calling two years later with Ajooba when he became the voice of Amitabh Bachchan.
He remembers that time fondly when he sang for Ajooba, a superhero film that was produced and directed by Shashi Kapoor and was an Indian-Soviet co-production starring Amitabh Bachchan. “There is actually an interesting story to this. Filmstar Shashi Kapoor sahab was the first one who suggested that I could be made to sing in an actor’s voice. Laxmi ji (one of the composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal) had called me to sing for the film Ajooba. And he introduced me to Shashi Kapoor saying this is the boy who can ‘make the sound’ of Amitabh Bachchan. So, Shashi Kapoor immediately said, “We will make him sing for Amit ji.” There was no looking back after that. Sudesh Bhosle has the maximum number of Amitabh Bachchan hit songs to his credit.
Sudesh Bhosale says that people knew him as the voice of Amitabh Bachchan. There have been many times when his voice was mistaken for the super star’s voice. “There have been times when Amit ji has told me, “Arre yaar, main gaata hoon toh log boltein hain Sudesh ne gaya and when you sing people say that I have sung. Yeh ho kya raha hai!”
Narrating another fun anecdote, Sudesh Bhosale says, “Once he had called singer Sapna Mukherjee and said, ‘Sapna Ji main Amitabh Bachchan bol raha hoon and she said, ‘Arre Sudesh, mazak mat karo’. And he said, ‘Sapna ji main Amitabh’ and she said ‘Sudesh main phone kaat dungi!’. She just couldn’t believe that it wasn’t me, and that it was the actual Amitabh Bachchan! Something similar had happened with Mithun Chakraborty and singer Mohammed Aziz, and on hearing Amitabh Bachachan’s voice, Mohammed Aziz said, “Aarre Sudesh bhai, kyon aisa kar rahe ho? Need nahi aa rahi hai kya?’ All the actors whom I have imitated have loved me and called me to say how much they love my work. ‘Tum itna accha karte ho. Kabhi kabhi toh hum se bhi accha karte ho’. They love me I guess because maine kabhi bhi kisi ka mazaak nahi udaya. That is the reason they really love me. Last 40 years ke itne kisse hain mere. Every moment is to cherish.”
Sudesh Bhosale’s remarkable humility in today’s day and age is another trait that stands out when he says, “I feel that I have got more than I deserve. I have had a smooth and happy life. I don’t want to rant about my struggles because I feel that every single person of all stratas of the society, no matter what the profession, has undergone some struggle. I feel that one recognises success and enjoys the fruits of it only when one has seen the other side. I have done everything and I stuck to my profession. Whatever talent God has given me and whatever life my parents have given I respect that, pooja ki tarah. I have never taken all that for granted. Aaj bhi whether I get Rs 50,000 or Rs 10 lakh I give my 100 percent in all my performances and that is the reason I think people love my work, and they still call me for shows.”
Debarati S Sen is a consultant journalist and writer who writes on music, culture, theatre, films, OTT and more. Instagram: @DebaratiSSen
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