The 'playback princess' award goes to…
Rituparna Som
Monday, November 28, 2005 20:52 IST
...Shreya Ghosal
Because despite being one of the most sought-after playback singers in an insanely competitive industry, she finds every call for work that she receives, encouraging.
"I'm not in a position yet to choose my projects, because it isn't wise to lose a song in this industry," she admits with all her 21-year-old wisdom, as she gets ready for her latest projects - 'Holiday' and 'Salaam-e-Ishq'.
Because her first thought when Sanjay Leela Bhansali called her for 'Devdas' was that she still had a year to go before she finished her twelfth standard exams.
"I knew I was heading for this industry, but I wanted to at least finish my HSC first. After all, my father is an engineer and my mother an English literature graduate and everyone in my neighbourhood was expecting me to get into either the medical or engineering profession," she laughs.
Because she insists that had it not been for the fact that she was equally involved with her singing career, with its lot of late night and early morning riyaazs (she's been recording regional albums in Marathi and Bengali ever since she was 13) while she was at school, she would never done as well as she did in her final exams.
"I can't stick to just one thing. I need to have time for leisure, when I'm doing something other than just studying. Music doesn't bind you to any one thing. It's like a big universe; there's so much to explore."
Because at 21, she's discovered the need for and the magic formula to de-stress. "I avoid anything where I might remotely find some obstacles. My parents take care of my work that's not musically inclined. It's not fair, what with my father having his own job to do as well".
"But I can't sing if I have something on my mind. I've learnt from experience that if I don't escape the strain, I won't be able to focus and the song will never come out the way it was meant to."
Because at the end of the day, even the most famous playback singer wonders if life would have been different had she lived more of a teenager's life in her teens instead of leading much more of a career-driven adult adolescence.
"I dream of trekking and travelling. I feel I might be missing out on freaking out even now. I like socialising, but once work grabs you, you lose that power of choosing."
Because for her, once work settles into a good pace it's difficult to hold back and put it on pause.
"But what I did in my teens I did out of choice. I wanted to do all the recordings because I enjoyed it…even if it meant two gruesome hours of stumbling over Tamil lyrics. In the end, I would listen to it and say, 'Oh my gawd! Did I just do that?'"
s_rituparna@dnaindia.net
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