Singer Arijit Singh took to Instagram on Tuesday evening to announce that he is retiring from singing in Bollywood films, sending shockwaves within the industry as well as among fans.

In his statement, Arijit wrote: “Hello, Happy new year to all. I want to thank you for giving me so much of love all these years as listeners. I am happy to announce that I am not gonna be taking any new assignments as a playback vocalist from now on. I am calling it off. It was a wonderful journey. God has been really kind to me. I am fan of good music and in future will be learning more and do more on my own as a small little artist.”

The singer added: “Thanks again for all your support. I still have to finish some pending commitments, will finish them. So you might get some releases this year. Just to be clear that I won’t stop making music.”

The announcement caught everyone unawares, with many initially thinking that Arijit’s account had been hacked. Arijit also posted the same announcement in a series of tweets on his private X account.

Composer Amaal Mallik, who has collaborated with Arijit on hits as diverse as Soch na sake (Airlift) and Sooraj dooba hain (Roy), said he was “lost after hearing this”. He also said that he didn’t get it, but that he respected the singer’s decision. “Grateful to be born in your era,” added Mallik.

While no clear reason for Arijit’s decision has been made public, there is chatter within music and movie circles that the announcement was made after some deliberation, with the singer wanting to step away from the Bollywood playback industry to completely and solely focus on making music on his own.

The Telegraph spoke to a few sources who didn’t confirm or deny that the increasing political pow-wow within the industry — influenced as it is by powerful music labels and composers — had anything to do with Arijit’s decision, but did hint that the singer gradually shifting away from Mumbai, the epicentre of the Hindi film and music industry, may have had a lot to do with it.

A prominent lyricist in Bollywood, who Arijit has worked closely with, told this newspaper that he was “surprised by the decision”, but would only comment after he spoke to the singer personally. He did not wish to be named.

Arijit began shifting his base from Mumbai to his hometown Jiaganj in Murshidabad around 2021-2022. At that time, the pandemic was cited as a reason, as well as the passing of his mother. In the last few years, he has made Jiaganj his primary home, prioritising spending time with his family, setting up a home studio and enrolling his children in a local school. He has, of course, been travelling to Mumbai — the singer maintains a residence there — honouring his playback singing commitments, while also touring the world with his music.

Over the last few years, a number of prominent musicians have popped into Jiaganj to make music with Arijit on his home turf or simply to spend time with him. The most prominent among them was Ed Sheeran. In February last year, the global pop star visited Jiaganj during his India tour. Even while the two — who had met at a concert in London and become good friends — jammed together in Arijit’s studio, a video of Sheeran riding pillion as Arijit drove him around the nooks and corners of Jiaganj quickly went viral.

The four-time Grammy Award winner had later described his 24-hour trip to the town as a “pilgrimage of music”.

Even as fans lamented the singer’s decision to step away from Bollywood, Arijit’s statement that he would continue to make music gave hope that they would see a lot more independent music coming out of the singer. He launched his independent music label, Oriyon Music, in July 2020, aiming for more creative control and to release non-film music. The platform features a variety of genres, from romantic ballads to modern, rhythmic tracks, all composed by Arijit. A few years ago, he also made his debut as a Bollywood music composer with Pagglait, which earned him praise.