17-year-old Arijit Singh cried incessantly after voting out his friend on a reality show; Ila Arun scolded him: ‘Do relationships matter to you?’

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She told him, “If you sing beautifully but don’t act the part in your personal life, I can’t stand that. Main kaise baat karu (How do I even talk to you)? Do relationships matter to you at all? You have talked about so many relations here, and if I am just a teacher to you, do we not have a relationship beyond that? I used to think that people were wrong about you. Are you really the kind of person who will cut all ties when he makes it big?”

Referring to a conversation she had with Javed Akhtar, a judge on the show, she added, “Javed bhai told me, ‘Isse achi tarah se baat kariye. Yeh agar star ban gaya toh apni car ki dhul ki tarah…’ (Talk to him nicely. If he becomes a star one day, he’ll treat us like smoke from his car. ” Arijit cut her off at this point and said that he considers Ila to be like a mother to him. Ila then gave him the recording of Shamit being interviewed after Arijit voted him out. Seeing the clip, Arijit started crying incessantly as he saw Shamit in utter disbelief about being voted out.

Ila later came and consoled Arijit. She told him that he needs to become a good human being first and then focus on his singing. The 17-year-old Arijit said that if Shamit faces any problem in his career, he’ll help him out.

However, this incident soured the public’s image of Arijit, and the singer was voted out soon after. He got the 6th rank on the show. Qazi Touqeer and Ruprekha Banerjee ended up winning the competition and received a music contract from Sony worth Rs 1 crore, along with a Maruti Suzuki Alto. Arijit would later go on to beat the winners of both Fame Gurukul and Indian Idol in a show called 10 ke 10 Le Gaye Dil, securing a Rs 10 lakh cash prize.