You can't fool the audience by lip-syncing: Ankit Tiwari

Mumbai: Singer Ankit Tiwari says the Indian audience is smart enough to call out the bluff of an artiste trying to lip-sync during a live performance. The “Sunn Raha Hai Na Tu” hitmaker says people in the country have a good ear for music as songs play an integral part of one’s life.

Recently, some of the biggest international singers, like Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran, performed in India. When asked if they get more love and attention as compared to local performers, Ankit says “all artistes get love equally.”

“There have been controversies too when some artistes performed here. Some performances were appreciated and some weren’t. But in India the audience is very smart. They can catch if you are lip-syncing to a song or not,” Ankit tells PTI.

“We, as a nation, are trained in it because music is something we all grow up listening. Not all of us might sing with proper ‘sur’ but because we have been raised listening to songs, we all have a ear for good music,” he adds. For the 31-year-old, performing honestly is more important than the size of the crowd.

“So we all are very aware and whenever an artiste tries to do something like a lip-sync, we are quick to catch. It doesn’t matter if there are 5,000 or 500 people in the crowd, if you can sing well and with absolute honesty, people will love you back,” he says. The singer has currently collaborated with DJ and music producer Zaeden for his latest track, “Tere Jaane Se”.

“As an artiste you want to experiment, meet new people and do different kind of songs. When I met Zaeden, I bonded well with him he had an instrumental piece ready so we worked on it, composed, and added lyrics. Then we came up up with this EDM-Bollywood fusion,” he says.

Ankit says though the duo was ready with the song months ago, they took time to make sure the track gets a video which it deserves. “We had readied the song 10 months ago in whatever little time we met during the composition. We were waiting for a proper video shoot to happen. When you are yourself involved in a project so much, you have to take one step at a time and make sure it turns out good,” he says. The song was out recently and the singer says he is “always nervous whenever his work is coming out”.