Indian Idol recently concluded its 16th season but for a large section of the viewers, who have been following the show for over 20 years, the name Abhijeet Sawant still rings a bell. Abhijeet was the winner of the first season of the show back in 2005, and while there have been many winners since then, the kind of popularity and public adulation that he got remains unforgettable. In the same year, Sony launched another reality show, Fame Gurukul, which had contestants like Arijit Singh and Qazi Touqueer. Qazi won that show and is currently a participant on Bigg Boss 20, and Arijit is one of the most popular playback singers of his generation. In a recent interview, when Abhijeet was asked about the trajectory of his career vis a vis Arijit, he spoke about the power of destiny.

In a chat with Filmygyan, Abhijeet shared that Arijit and he tasted fame in the same year, 2005, but after their respective reality shows, they followed a different career path. Abhijeet won Rs 1 crore, thanks to Indian Idol, and secured an album with the channel. While Arijit went back to the drawing board. Abhijeet became a household name but Arijit did not get many opportunities with his singing career.

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‘Arijit stayed away from limelight for 10 years’

“After 2005, Arijit stayed away from the limelight. For at least 10 years, call it a blessing in disguise, he went to the music studios and he worked with all the major music composers, not as a singer but as a producer, as a programmer,” he said and added, “He went back to the basics and he started his journey again and no one knew him back then.”

Abhijeet said that he was far more popular than Arijit back then. “If you compare him and me at that time, I was very popular, but he wasn’t. So the kind of pressure that I faced was very different than the pressure that he was facing. He worked a lot for those 10 years, and worked a lot with musicians and then he got his first big song,” he said.

‘Getting Tum Hi Ho was destiny’

Arijit’s first song was Murder 2’s ‘Dil Sambhal Ja Zara’ but it was Aashiqui 2’s ‘Tum Hi Ho’ that made him a sensation. Abhijeet said that landing that song was just destiny. “‘Tum Hi Ho’ made Arijit ‘Arijit Singh’ and that song landing in the lap of any singer… It was all about destiny,” he said.

Abhijeet concluded by saying that the audience usually tries to find faults with those who are less successful and keeps praising those who seem to have gained success, but that is not always the case. “It is a flaw with the audience that we keep praising the one who is successful, but the ones we don’t know much about, we keep finding flaws in them. That’s not all. Everyone has their own journey. Everyone is trying their best to work, live their life. Let them,” he concluded.

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Arijit announced his retirement from playback singing earlier this year. He is still completing his previous commitments and the audience can still find new songs by the singer in films. He will next be heard in Shah Rukh Khan’s King.