After creating a niche in the Bollywood music industry, Aashiqui 2 fame singer Ankit Tiwari, who is now on a roll with his non-film songs, says the latter have given him a new identity.

"Non-film music allows singers to explore themselves... It not only gives them a freedom to create songs in their way but also gives them a facial identity which is mostly taken away from them by the stars," Ankit told IANS.

The 32-year-old, who launched his new single titled Naina earlier this month, spoke about the challenges he faced while making independent songs.

"Creating non-film songs in a country where everyone is fond of Bollywood, is quite challenging. Reaching the mass audience through singles is a little bit difficult but such a scenario is also changing in our country as now people have started following independent artistes," he said.

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Despite the challenges and difficulties in creating non-film music, Ankit will continue making music independently as it gives him creativity to play with the songs.

Also, while talking about the film industry, Ankit expressed anger over the prevailing "royalty" issue in the industry.

"Indian singers have been fighting for the royalty of the songs for long time. Obviously it hurts when you don't get due credits for your own songs. In independent music, there is no such issue...It's your own loss and your own profit thing."

Asked if he is not interested working in Bollywood projects anymore, the "Galliyan" hitmaker said: "No, it is not that I am pulling away myself from Bollywood. Whoever I am today is because of this industry only. It is just that I wanted to do something new and that's why I started creating my singles."