Question 1

Does Arijit Singh write his own songs?

Accepted Answer

Almost never, and that is the job, not a gap in it. Arijit Singh is a playback singer, a specific role in Indian film music: the music director writes the tune, a lyricist writes the words, and the playback singer records the vocal that an actor lip-syncs on screen. Wikipedia's list of his recorded work counts 733 songs across ten languages, and the composer and writer columns next to them carry other people's names, among them Pritam, Mithoon, Amaal Mallik, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Irshad Kamil and Gulzar. His own composing credits are counted separately on that same page and come to 28 songs. "Tum Hi Ho", the record that made him famous, was composed and written by Mithoon before Singh ever sang a note of it. So on a site built around who wrote what, his page reads as a catalogue of other writers' songs carried by one voice.

Question 2

Who actually wrote his biggest hits?

Accepted Answer

"Tum Hi Ho" from Aashiqui 2 was composed and written by Mithoon. "Kesariya" from Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva was composed by Pritam with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. "Ae Watan" from Raazi came from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Gulzar. "Sajni" from Laapataa Ladies was composed by Ram Sampath with lyrics by Prashant Pandey, and "Sooraj Dooba Hain" from Roy by Amaal Mallik with lyrics by Kumaar. Singh sang all five and wrote none of them.

Question 3

What films has Arijit Singh composed for?

Accepted Answer

One as full music director: the 2021 Hindi film Pagglait, which marked his debut as a composer and came out through his own label, Oriyon Music, with all the lyrics written by Neelesh Misra. That soundtrack earned him a Filmfare nomination for Best Music Direction (2022) and a win for Best Original Song for "Phire Faqeera" at the FOI Online Awards in the same cycle. He has also composed the odd song elsewhere, including "Boba Rajkumar" for the Bengali film Hercules, plus a run of non-film singles such as "Rihaa", "Deh Shiva" and "Barkhaa". Set against 733 songs sung, 28 composed is the honest size of that side of his work.

Question 4

What is a playback singer?

Accepted Answer

In Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu cinema, songs are recorded in a studio before filming and the actor mimes to the finished track. The singer who records it is the playback singer. Credit for a film song therefore splits three ways: music director for the composition, lyricist for the words, playback singer for the performance. The three are rarely the same person, and a hit song can make the singer a household name while the writers stay in the fine print.

Question 5

How many songs has Arijit Singh recorded?

Accepted Answer

733 in all, by Wikipedia's count: 551 Hindi songs, 143 Bengali songs, 25 Telugu songs, 4 Tamil songs, 4 Marathi songs, 2 Kannada songs, and one each in Malayalam, Gujarati, Assamese and Punjabi.

Question 6

How many Filmfare Awards has Arijit Singh won?

Accepted Answer

Eight for Best Male Playback Singer, from 24 nominations, starting with "Tum Hi Ho" (2014) and running through "Sajni" (2025). In the Bengali branch, Filmfare Awards Bangla, he has won 3 from 13 nominations. Across every award body tracked on his awards page the totals stand at 124 wins from 395 nominations.

Question 7

Has he won a National Film Award?

Accepted Answer

Twice, both for Best Male Playback Singer: for "Binte Dil" from Padmaavat (2018) and for "Kesariya" from Brahmastra (2022). The National Film Awards are presented by the President of India.

Question 8

Was Arijit Singh given the Padma Shri?

Accepted Answer

Yes. He appears on the official Padma Shri roll for 2025, listed under Art and West Bengal, honoured for his work in Indian music.

Question 9

Why do so few albums show up under his name?

Accepted Answer

A playback singer turns up on hundreds of soundtracks one or two tracks at a time, so almost none of those albums are his in any authorship sense. The soundtracks kept here are the ones where his vocal defines the record, from Aashiqui 2 through Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva and Laapataa Ladies.

Question 10

How did Arijit Singh get his break?

Accepted Answer

Mithoon had already cut "Tum Hi Ho" with Singh's vocals two years before Aashiqui 2 came out. When director Mohit Suri heard the track, his first question was who the singer was, and on hearing the name he asked for Singh on the whole soundtrack. The song went to number one on MTV India's Top 20 for seven weeks and won him his first Filmfare Award.