Her career, at 28, is going great guns. She has won four National awards and eight Filmfare awards (including the South). But she's not even close to done.
In town for a concert, Shreya says: “I think good songs, interesting work, the excitement of doing something new everyday keeps me going. I'm in a position where I have so much still to explore.”
Her career was launched with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's “Devdas.” It's quite hard to imagine that it is the same delicate voice that is behind “Chikni Chameli”.
“I enjoy singing. It's not a profession; it's more of a passion. I think that reflects in my work. I am aware of the fact that I have a lot more to do, I'm always aware of it. There's always a hunger to learn, to go into other genres and I'm constantly learning by listening to every kind of music. ”
Of course, singing in over 300 films offers quite bit of room for experimentation and growth. “I've definitely evolved. My singing style and my voice has changed over the time. I entered the scene when I was 16. Since then maturity has come in, my voice has changed. I have seen more of life and I express songs differently.”
But she's still quite uncertain about where she wants to go. “I have lots of things on my mind. Nothing is clear enough to say this is my future. But I definitely want to do more than just Bollywood music. Right now, most of our singers are limited to film music. I want to create a ratio that favours non-film music.”
This doesn't necessarily mean collaborations.
“I'm not saying no to collaborations. But it cannot be a forced collaboration, there has to be some kind of commonality of thought between two artists, whether the artist is from LA or from Africa.”
About competition, Shreya says: “I don't think I believe in competition, especially in the arts because each person has a different voice and personality. There cannot be any competition because you are not doing the same thing, you are two completely different people. I can go on as long as there is belief that I can do justice to a song.”
Shreya has received training in both Hindustani classical and folk music and also trained under film composer Kalyanji Shah. She regrets
“Not learning classical music. I was more inclined towards light music. I would like to restart my lessons in classical music and reach performance potential. Then again, had I become a classical singer I would not have understood the nuances of light or film music. I'm glad that I chose this path.”
The songstress feels films reflect society. “Today there is so much of junk happening and that is what is shown in the films. Music is also made accordingly. The only way for good Indian music is when we do more non-film music and singers have more say in what they want to do.”
The talented youngster observes that the “Kannada or Malayalam industries are more music centric. You cannot put South Indian film music in one homogenous group as filmmakers in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, have different tastes. In comparison to the north, there is a lot more respect for musicians in the South.”
Though she was first noticed by the film industry for in the television show “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”, she feels that commercialisation has crept into talent shows.
“It was not a reality show. I could sing rare, difficult songs which nobody had heard of. Today, everybody has to sing songs which will raise the TRP of the channel. Having said that, I would not say reality shows are wrong. After all, it is up to the individual. If one is focused, I think one can do well. The gates are always open gates for freshers.”
Conversation Courtsey: thehindu.com
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