4 min readMumbaiNov 12, 2025 11:41 AM IST
Music composer Abu Malik has weighed in on Udit Narayan’s controversial kiss to his fans at a concert earlier this year. A video of the popular singer surfaced online, showing him purportedly kissing a fan at a live concert after she leaned in to peck him on the cheek while taking a selfie. In the viral video, Narayan was seen returning kisses to female fans as he sings his popular 1994 song “Tip Tip Barsa Paani” from action thriller Mohra.
“It’s starvation maybe, starvation of human company. God knows what it is. I would feel shocked to think you just catch somebody and kiss them. This is odd yaar. It’s desperation. One should not be so desperate. You’ve got everything. You can make arrangements for everything in the world. You don’t need to be so desperate in life,” said Abu Malik.
“It’s a small job. Do it, go back, be humble about it, and thank God you’ve risen from the road and reached here,” added Abu in an interview with Vickey Lalwani. However, he added that otherwise, Udit Narayan is a humble man. “Nice guy, he’s humble, but his head is in the clouds. He meets you warmly. He’s okay,” said Abu.
The singer he described as “arrogant” is Kumar Sanu. “The way he talks, the way he walks, the way he struts around, he’s an arrogant human being. The best part is nobody tells them that. Now, how can you become a politician suddenly? You start talking politics and religion, but you’re just a singer, man,” added Abu.
“He struts around like a peacock as if he’s conquered the world. What have you achieved? You just sing songs. Arrogance, pride, everything is there,” claimed Abu, adding that “most singers are like that.” “Singing a song is just singing a song. It depends on the actor who’s in it, the music composer, the lyricist, the recordists. It takes a village to make one song, and the credit is given to the singer?,” said Abu.
Abu feels the film and music industries are skewed against the composer. “A music director works very hard to compose the song and fight with the producer for everything. And a singer comes in and takes away the proprietorship. That’s been the history for ages, from Lata Mangeshkar to Armaan Malik. The music composer is left with no kudos,” argued Abu.
He added that one can’t listen to a Lata Mangeshkar song without acknowledging the contributions of legendary music composers like Naushad and Madan Mohan. “Barring the top five composers of that time, all the others, including my father (Sardar Malik) rolled back because the credit for the song goes to the singer. They’re making crores and crores, and music composers get nothing out of it,” said Abu.
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He acknowledged the contribution of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) to get composers their due, but believes the age-old adage of the Hindi film industry still holds true: “Only when one has does great deeds that a singer or an actor is born in one’s home.” “It’s only the singers and actors who earn. Music composers are no match. The career graph is here (high) and here (low). That’s the difference,” added Abu.
Abu Malik comments on Udit Narayan's kissing controversy.