{"id":664995,"date":"2026-10-25T14:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664995\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:56:09","slug":"indian-idols-abhijeet-sawant-recalls-struggles-after-winning-the-show-says-we-had-to-knock-on-doors-for-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664995\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Idol\u2019s Abhijeet Sawant recalls struggles after winning the show, says \u2018we had to knock on doors for work\u2019 |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Indian Singer Abhijeet Sawant, who won the debut season of “Indian Idol” in 2004, says reality show contestants of his generation struggled to find a foothold in the playback singing industry, which was then dominated by established singers and music directors.Sawant, who is returning as a contestant on “Indian Idol Legends Return”, said winning the singing reality show gave him recognition but did not guarantee a career in playback singing.”During our time, it was too difficult because it was a restrictive industry. Everything was set; all the singers and music directors were established, and everyone was doing their work.”We came in and started knocking on the door, saying, ‘Please give us entry, give us work’,” Sawant told PTI in an interview.Besides, he also claimed that the growing popularity of reality show contestants had created insecurity among some people in the music industry.”We had many positive and negative sides. For instance, people were insecure that we, the reality show contestants, had become so popular and were now becoming bigger than even playback singers. So, that was also a thing. And everyone had to face it, and we had to handle it,” he said.Sawant said he continues to face criticism even after more than two decades in the industry but has learnt to navigate his way through it and chooses to focus on doing good work.”People will taunt you. People will teach you right and wrong, even when they have no experience. But even after tolerating all this, you have to keep your mind right. More than achieving something, the journey is the most important part,” he said.Reflecting on his journey since winning “Indian Idol”, Sawant said he had the opportunity to explore avenues beyond singing, including “Bigg Boss” Marathi, “Celebrity MasterChef”, “Comedy Circus” and acting in films.”After winning the title, people don’t count me just as a singer; I\u2019m a television personality. So, doing so many things is possible when you become popular on a face level, and that popularity ‘Indian Idol’ has given us.”And that’s why there is not just one star; there are others like Rahul Vaidya. Sriram Chandra is doing films in the South and hosting shows as well,” he added.The singer said he considers himself more of a pop artiste than just a playback singer, citing the popularity of his independent songs, including “Mohabbatein Lutaunga” and “Junoon”.The 45-year-old is currently focused on creating original music and has five songs ready, including two original tracks, a Hindi-Marathi fusion song with a Marathi rapper, and two songs he is working on with Saregama.He sees his return to the “Indian Idol” platform as an opportunity to challenge himself creatively and collaborate with younger singers and musicians.”Now, I’ve competition with myself. I want to learn from this platform. I want to work with the younger generation, and I’m getting a chance to work with these young musicians and singers,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer Abhijeet Sawant, who won the debut season of “Indian Idol” in 2004, says reality show contestants of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[281452,93,61,201970,60,281453,139062,261497,282],"class_list":["post-664995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abhijeet-sawant","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-indian-idol","tag-ireland","tag-music-industry-struggles","tag-playback-singing","tag-reality-show-contestants","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}