Born and raised in Kolkata, it was after a year's stint at an MNC as a software engineer, that Debanjali realised her true calling lay in music. Soon thereafter, she left for the shores of Mumbai to try her luck in the Hindi music industry. After several auditions and failed attempts at the city of dreams, Debanjali finally bagged a chance to lend her voice in a film called Amavas -- she sang one track composed by Ankit Tiwari in the Telugu version of the film. "This was followed by other projects like Call My Agent (for Netflix), Chhoya Chhuyi song with Armaan Malik, tracks for Badhaai Do, Street Dancer, Aafat-e-Ishq and now, Varun Dhawan's Bhediya.
We speak to the spunky young singer about her rise in the very competitive and cut-throat world of playback singing.
How has the experience been in Bollywood music space so far?
Experience in Bollywood as a playback singer is very interesting and tough as well, especially when you don't have anyone to back you at the entry-level. People here respect talent but you've to be patient to get to meet the correct person or platform to showcase your talent. My journey is still on and so far my experience has been difficult yet motivating.
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What kind of innovation do you try to bring into your music as a voice artist?
As a playback singer, I always try to keep myself updated with various genres of music and singing so that whatever song comes my way, I'm able to do justice to it and the music composer's vision for that song. Thankfully all the music composers with whom I've worked to date are very happy with the versatility that I offer in the job.
How do you grow as a singer?
I've been trained in classical music since my teenage days and I also completed my Sangeet Visharad later. Since I was also inclined toward western pop music, I later took advanced training in Western vocals as well.
Outside Bollywood, I've sung for TV serials, brand jingles, singles from different music labels besides a few covers that I had put up on my own YouTube channel. Though I'm not a frequent social media user, still people have shown a lot of love for my works which I keep putting up on my own channel.
What kind of music inspires you?
Any kind of soulful music mostly inspires me besides new-age quirky music. A lot of artists are on my list of inspirations and it's hard to name one or two.
Also, there's a long list of people with whom I would love to work in the future. All the composers of this age are so good and versatile that I would feel grateful to work with all of them at least once or twice.
How is the musicscape evolving and as a millennial, what kind of music do you prefer?
As a millennial, I feel people are more open to different genres of music in terms of listening. Any song with good, simple relatable lyrics is ruling the charts now, I feel. At the same time, any song with very rich composition and lyrics are also making its mark. The listening space is huge these days.
I love listening to almost all possible genres right from Sufi to Pop, devotional to RnB, and Retro to New-age EDM music.
In social media and ever-growing online music platforms how difficult or easy is it to hold your own?
These days social media & online music platforms have proved to be very useful tools to spread your own music. Hence the competition has grown a lot as everyone can upload their music and make it reach their audience. That's a very good thing but again the market has everything on offer -- from exceptional to below-average music -- which is not a great thing to know for a professional musician.