Hyderabad: Amaal Mallik is one of Bollywood’s most popular music composers and singers. He gave us hit songs like “Sooraj Dooba Hai,” “Chale Aana,” and many more. Even though he comes from a musical family—his father Daboo Malik, uncle Anu Malik, and younger brother Armaan Malik—Amaal worked hard to build his own name. He started his career in 2014 with Salman Khan’s film “Jai Ho” and quickly became known for his emotional and soulful music.
“Money is just a means to an end”
Recently, Amaal spoke honestly in a podcast with Siddharth Kannan. He shared details about his personal life, especially his spending habits and family struggles. Amaal said, “Sometimes you are going to a party after a show, or I am taking my people out, so I spend a good amount. I am a very generous person in that sense; I don’t feel like I have to hold on to a lot of money. For me, it’s just a means to an end.”
He admitted that he spends freely—sometimes Rs. 1 lakh in a day or Rs. 20,000 just on dinner. “So, they will never understand why the bill is Rs 20,000 or why I spent Rs 1 lakh in one day. It’s not that we spend that much every day, but there are days when I take my people out, have an event, or go for dinner after a show with the band.”
Amaal added that he has let go of a lot of payments in his career because he doesn’t care about the money. He talked about how certain big producers fail to pay the amount they promise. “There are a lot of big producers who won’t clear almost 40% of your payment, but smaller producers who don’t even have budgets don’t do this. As long as there is intent, I don’t mind working with them. I am owed around Rs 25 lakh in total, but it doesn’t matter because God has been kind, and you can make this in one night and one performance,” said Amaal.
Amaal said that while he is open with his father about money, his mother doesn’t like the way he spends. “My mother has a very different relationship with money. She will never understand why the dinner bill is Rs. 20k or why I suddenly spent a lakh rupees in a single day. I am very transparent with my dad about what I spend, but I have to be careful around my mother, because she gets upset about my expenses.”
He shared that his mother once had only Rs. 500 left, and that made her very careful about money. “My accounts are very clear with my dad. Simple. I don’t hide anything from him. With mom, sometimes if the dinner bill gets too high, I have to hide it. Because it’s a mindset. I’ve only started understanding this in the last three months. I am coming from a fresh perspective of understanding my family’s past and how their income was.”
Amaal also spoke about the emotional pain he felt when his mother compared him to his younger brother, singer Armaan Malik. “She would compare my journey with Armaan, and that would affect her. But no two people walk the same path. Armaan and I are completely different, we do different kinds of music, different interviews, and we have different personalities.”
Why He Stepped Away from His Family
Because of these issues, Amaal made the tough choice to distance himself from his parents. He said that people from the industry would call his father and complain about him, which caused even more stress. “Being from the industry, people would call my dad and say, ‘Your son is acting up.’”
Even though things were tough, his father Daboo Malik supported him publicly when Amaal shared his pain after a breakup. Daboo wrote to him, “Son… Remember, your Father is always there… I know your pain and I love you to eternity.”
