There is another big birthday today, but I am following a “if you can’t say anything nice” policy and ignoring it. But that means Sukhwinder gets a day all to himself! And he deserves it, he has worked very hard for a very long time.
Sukhwinder doesn’t have the kind of voice that gets a lot of starring songs. It’s kind of rough sounding, and harsh. He does a lot of work as the extra male voice in ensemble songs. Like in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, when they needed 4 distinctive voices, 2 male and 2 female, they brought in Sukhwinder.
Music directors will pick him when they want that rough every man sound to their songs.
He doesn’t seem to have a regular music director collaborator, not the way Arijit Singh works with Pritam for instance, but he does work with Rahman fairly often, when Rahman needs that rough sound.
Other music directors too, every once in a while will find a really spectacular way to showcase his sound.
There’s a kind of aggressive misery in his voice.
Which can also turn into a strange sort of party song with an edge to it feeling, like in his recent hit from Soorma.
Or in “Slow Motion Angreza” from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. His voice works well for songs sung by strong manly men.
His voice makes you believe it could be a real person singing, not a famous movie star or playback singer, but just a regular person lifting up their voice.
Maybe that’s why he’s often used for the voice of the second hero. The less heroic hero.
Right from the early days, Kumar Sanu got the good bits of this song, Sukhwinder was left with the dregs.
Which isn’t to say he hasn’t had his chances to shine, his big hit songs! Often with Shahrukh, something about Shahrukh’s unusual difficult face goes with Sukhwinder’s unusual difficult voice.
Sukhwinder isn’t a famous name and doesn’t have a lot of songs to his credit, but if you crawl through his filmography you will find that he has been a part of a handful of classics. A reminder that everyone has their part to play, and everyone will have their moment to shine. From “Chak De India”
To “Haule Haule”
To “Mitwa”
To “Chaiyya Chaiyya”
dontcallitbollywood 
So many good songs! Thanks for pulling them together, especially the non-SRK ones.
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Because I’m trying to expand my repetoire, not because I could ever get tired of SRK videos, in case that needs to be said, haha.
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I was honestly wondering! I suppose it is possible you could have tired of Shahrukh and been ready to move on, but it seemed unlikely. Anyway, check out the second song if you want to see a very very handsome man.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 10:43 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, sometimes I like doing the birthday posts for the slightly-less-famous types more, because it lets me go off and tour lessor known areas and discover hidden gems. I really love Chal Chal from Astitva.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 10:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Lol…. the anti pc vibe is strong hehe
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Poor Kangana hasn’t had a birthday post either. Usually I just skip people without mentioning it, but Kangana shares hers with Emraan, and PC with Sukhwinder, so it seemed strange not to say anything.
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but why don’t you like her..?
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Oh, I wrote posts on this! how handy, I don’t have to invent something new.
Kangana: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/10/12/hrithik-and-kangana-the-tv-interview/
Priyanka: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2018/06/21/hindi-film-101-priyanka-chopra-and-shahrukh-khan/
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Ramta Jogi from Taal is another one too!
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ooo, yes! Rahman does such interesting thing with people’s voices, finding just the right singer for each song.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 6:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Also, this! I don’t know if it qualifies as Bollywood but it was a big deal when I was growing up and one of the best films I’ve ever seen. With the who’s who of indie Bollywood!
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Oh, is this Monsoon Wedding? I saw he was involved with that but I couldn’t track back which song it was.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 6:43 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes! Monsoon Wedding. I think he also co-wrote this song. The song was re-made in Lucknow Central with a different singer and he was credited as co-composer
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You have missed one of Sukhwinder’s best songs:
And another iconic song, even though not as technically challenging as the above one:
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I missed Tere Naam, but I thought about Dabangg! Only I dumped it because, like you said, it really isn’t technically challenging. And it is super well known. Felt like I might as well take the chance to only show his really spectacular songs, and some of his slightly less known songs.
totally should have included Tere Naam though.
On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 8:56 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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What about Jai Ho? Did you leave because it has multiple singers?
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That, and it was familiar. I wanted to expand a little to lessor known songs.
On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 12:21 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Omkara title song
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this post, I have been recognized Sukhwinder Singh as a singer in audi audi jay song and radha from student of the year, loved him so much, I think he has a remarkable history not a little, Although he did not achieve stardom
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Glad you liked it!
On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 4:18 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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He is quite famous in India not at level of arijit/sonu/shaan but famous on his own.
You missed a lot of his songs. Most of movies has at least 1 sukhi song.
Jai ho from slum dog for which he won Oscar.
Lagan lag gayi from tere naam his 2 nd imp song after chhaiaya chhaiaya.
Lai vi na gayi
Banjaara ek tha tiger
Bismil haider
Beedi onkara
Dard e disco
DHAN te naan kaniney
O saki saki re
Many of these are more popular than those on your list.
Sorry but he is a mainstream singer not a singer for a 2nd lead and has a very important place in music industry.
I m a huge sukhi ji fan and listen mostly his song hence the rant.
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Love all of them ..sukhwinder Singh is one of my favourite singers..Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was a really weird movie but songs were so good especially Bol naa Halke Halke (which is not sung by Sukhwinder Singh but of course )..
Love RNBDJ songs especially Haule Haule and Tujh Pe rab Dikhta hai(again not Sukhwinder Singh), Taal(Ramta Jogi),Monsoon Wedding(Kaava Kaava) , Dil Se ,Lagaan,oh and a song from the movie Moksha(Jaan leva)..the list goes on.15 songs are not enough there are so many ..you should’ve created Part 1 ,Part 2 ,…Part n .
Also there is one album song which i don’t remember the name of it but it is so good..
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I got burned after my Lata birthday post was super unpopular 🙂 No one is willing to stick around for more than 20 songs even of Lataji, what hope does mere Sukhwinder Singh have?
On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 1:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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oh yaa ..you did a post on Lata Mangeshkar i forgot..i’m yet to listen to them :p
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Omg I just love Chaiyya Chaiyya!
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