“Today, I have decided to gift myself a few years to live life differently. To catch up on what I’ve missed.” That was how Pritam Chakraborty thanked fans on his 55th birthday, June 14, in an Instagram post with black and white photographs. Within hours, the internet had decided he was leaving.
He had not said so. The Statesman pointed out that the post made no direct mention of retirement. The composer went on to write: “Time to set off on new journeys, which have been kept on the back burner for long. Mainstream is a great ride. But I’ve always been more curious about the roads unexplored.”
Fans read a goodbye
The comments filled fast. One user wrote: “First Arijit then youu..both retired from mainstream.” Another saw a silver lining and hoped for “some magical and musical experience”, perhaps with Arijit again. A third simply asked in Hindi whether he was retiring. Plenty of others kept to birthday wishes, one calling him “the GOAT” and another addressing him as “Dada”.
The comparison to Arijit Singh came naturally. In January 2026, Arijit announced on Instagram that he would take no new assignments as a playback vocalist. The Statesman noted that he had reportedly sung over 600 songs across Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. He said he would keep making music, finish work already signed and let pending songs come out over the year and possibly the next.
What Pritam said earlier
Weeks before the birthday post, Pritam had defended Arijit’s exit in an interview with Screen. “Artists don’t retire,” he said. “They take a break and redirect to something that is interesting them more.” He added that Arijit was directing a film and that the decision about when to sing was his own.
In the same interview he described a private joke between the two. He had told Arijit for about a year that he himself was retiring, and Arijit, whose hometown is Jiaganj, would laugh. According to Pritam, Arijit once said that on the day Pritam retired, he would retire too. The next day, Arijit announced his decision, then called to say, “Aapse nahi hoga.”
No announcement
Times of India reported that Pritam has made no retirement announcement. Many fans, it noted, believe he is looking for a better balance between work and personal life rather than leaving music. The Statesman added that neither Pritam nor his team had said whether the post amounts to a formal announcement of any kind.
Pritam, born in Calcutta on 14 June 1971, is a National Film Award winner whose film scores include Barfi!, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dangal and Brahmastra: Part One.
Sources
- Pritam Chakraborty: ‘Mainstream is a great ride, but…’: Pritam drops cryptic birthday post, hinting at retiring from commercial music | Hindi Movie News – The Times of India
- Is Pritam retiring like Arijit? Three lines on his birthday have the internet divided – The Statesman
