Suraj Jugan talks about playback singing

The archetypical journeyman musician, Suraj Jugan drips with quintessential bandana-ed rock star cool. To top it all, Suraj is nonchalant about his many achievements as a singer, which most yardsticks would describe as pretty significant. Suraj Jagan, is a powerhouse vocalist and livewire performer, and is riding high on the waves that the tittle track for the movie, Johnny Gaddar created and the instant connection which, Dum Laga from Dil Dosti Etc. established with the youth.

"It's fun," is how Suraj sums it up, even as Missing Sunday from the Ajay Devgan starer, Sunday, escalates up the popularity charts. Suraj is a comfortable inhabitant of the world of rock advertising jingles and playback singing and imbues each one of them with an all-consuming passion for music - he discovered quite by accident.

"It was 1989 and I was in college," recalls the singer. "I had a few friends who had a band, and one day on a whim, I decided to sing for them." This kick-started the next phase of his career - advertising jingles. “My friend Rupert, was playing the guitar for a band called Rock Covenant, and had started doing studio sessions,” remembers Suraj. One day Suraj gets a call from Rupert, the next day they did the “Hamara Bajaj” ad, and post the third day, the rest was, as they say, history. Soon Suraj had a number of jingles, including the oft heard and hummed Vodaphone jingle, "You and I, in this beautiful world", in his kitty.

In the middle of all this, Jagan also found time to cut an eponymous pop rock album with Siddharth and Suhas who were members of the Hindi rock band Vedic Chant. Though the album didn’t do much to bolster Suraj’s bank account, Siddharth and Suhas did however, soon turn music directors and Jagan sang the very popular Dum Laga, from the movie Dil Dosti Etc... “ While the Johnny Gaddar deal came about because Ehsaan was an old friend.

Following all his recent film music success, the road is wide open for Suraj. "I don’t know anything else!” he says with a laugh. “I’ve never had a job. All I have done is sing. It’s just something that totally grabs you.” And never lets go. With that bit of information, lets hope it never lets him go. For his sake!