Arijit Singh

Context: Singh's musical career began when his guru Rajendra Prasad Hazari, who felt that "Indian classical music was a dying tradition", insisted he leave his hometown and participate in the reality show Fame Gurukul (2005) at the age of 18. He approached the finals of the programme but was eliminated by audience polling, finishing in sixth place.  During the show, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali recognised his talent and had him sing "Yun Shabnami" a song scheduled to be used in his upcoming film Saawariya. During production, the script changed and the song was no longer required. It was never released. After the Fame Gurukul, Kumar Taurani, the head of Tips, signed him for an album which was never released.  He won another reality show 10 Ke 10 Le Gaye Dil. He chose to move to Mumbai in the 2006 to freelance, staying in a rented room in the Lokhandwala area of the city. He invested the prize money from 10 ke 10 Le Gaye Dil to build his own recording studio. He became a music producer and began composing music and singing pieces for advertisements, news channels and radio stations.  Singh spent part of his early musical career as a music programmer and music producer for music directors such as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Mithoon, Monty Sharma and Pritam. While working with other composers he supervised the vocals, and the chorus sections. But it was while working with Pritam, that he began to produce and program music by himself.  About his early life struggles, he said, "One has to suffer pain to reach their destination, those days when I failed to get work, I thought about quitting and going back in my hometown, but I realised that one should concentrate on one's work no matter what happens." On his move from the small village of Jiaganj to a city like Mumbai he later said, "Mumbai is a place which is made up of small town boys and girls who come to Mumbai to try their luck, but what counts is 'hard work'".  Singh has played a great role in the Bollywood singing career of one of his contemporaries today Ash King. Regarding his help King told the Times of India, "When I met Arijit in London through a mutual friend, he wasn't a star singer yet. I knew he'd be big someday. When I came back (to Kolkata) in 2010, Arijit invited me to Mumbai and recommended me to Pritam for the song 'I Love You' and 'Te Amo'. He has been a great motivating force."  Singh said in an interview that he would love to serve people through his NGO named "Let There Be Light" which works for the Below Poverty Line (BPL) community. His NGO aims to include activities like bloodbank camp (with proof and records and photographs of all the blood being delivered properly), distribution of clothes, books, stationery, etc. to Below Poverty Line children on a huge scale and seasonal human ground activities.  In an interview, he spoke about his desire to work for people. "I try and help people in whichever way I can. I owned an NGO long time ago which is now turned into something which helps the people in whichever way they can. For example, we collected a lot of things for victims of the Nepal earthquake. The biggest problem is that we are not ready for anything bad that happens, be it during disasters or helping people post one. For example, the first earthquake in Nepal happened on 25 April and it took me a while to collect something as basic as matchboxes, candles and so on. People basically are not ready to help others. I firmly feel that we over here need a lot of awareness when it comes to population and at times I even feel bad for the Government."  In an interview with The Times of India, Singh said he did not think much about his public image. As he performs live he want to look as fresh he can and he wants to look more like a musician than a pop star.  Singh feels that his passion for singing is the biggest influence in the music career; "It's not like that I was influenced by anyone to enter the industry. I always dreamt of becoming a singer." Though he has been inspired by many artists, Singh named KK as his favourite singer along with Ayushmann Khurrana. He named Pritam Chakraborty, Vishal-Shekhar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Amit Trivedi, Mithoon and A. R. Rahman as his favourite music directors. Singh has idolized Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh and Mehdi Hassan. He also had shared his fondness for Kishore Kumar and Mohit Chauhan, with whom he is often compared. Singh has said that "Chauhan is a great singer, a great musician and a big icon in India. Being compared to him makes me tremendously happy."  In an interview with Filmbeat in April 2013, he declared that he is the biggest fan of singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK). His desire to sing for Aamir Khan came to reality in 2016 with the song "Naina" from Dangal. Regarding the comparison made with Atif Aslam, Singh stated; "I respect [Aslam] as I do every individual musician and artist." In an interview with The Indian Express, Singh stated that he loves the work of Shalmali Kholgade, Shefali Alvares and Irfan. He also mentioned that his "current favourite" singer is Chinmayi. In 2016 he appeared on the popular chat and comedy show The Kapil Sharma Show aired on Sony TV India. The show's host Kapil Sharma explained the difficulties he had bringing Singh on the show due to his shy nature. Arijit Singh sang live in the concert MTV India Tour. The concert was organised by MTV and Wizcraft. The tour covered some ten cities of India. CANNOTANSWER

Question: who were Arijit Singh's influences?
Answer: for music directors such as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Mithoon, Monty Sharma and Pritam.