Debuting as a Bollywood playback singer at the age of 14 with Golmaal Returns, Anwesshaa has come a long way, firmly establishing her name among the top league playback singers in the current Hindi film music scene. That aside, Anwesshaa's latest non-filmi duet Wo Kashish with Javed Ali has already hit more than two million views on YouTube within three days of its release. And the singer is currently busy composing for a Marathi film based on Vijay Tendulkar's play and she is really excited about her Marathi debut.
We speak with the beautiful and mellifluous crooner about the same and her plans to come up with a complete album soon.
Your song Wo Kashish has really clicked well with the young audience.
Abhishek Thakur productions got in touch with me and once they shared the song, I loved the simplicity of it. Growing up, I used to listen to such music back in the 90s. And I feel that these songs still have their appeal to young Indian listeners.
I love co-singing with Javed and I've beautiful duets with him in Hindi and Bengali films. Our last duet in Bollywood came last year in the movie Dhoop Chhaav and I thoroughly enjoyed recording Wo Kashish with him.
Tell us what's keeping you busy nowadays?
I'm singing in Hindi films and non-film projects in South Indian, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati playbacks. And I'm composing the music for Marathi film Pahije Jaatiche which is the film adaptation of Vijay Tendulkar's eponymous play. Apart from studio work, gigs take up a lot of time during this time of the year.
How did you plan the composition for Pahije Jaatiche's tracks?
The film's story focuses on how social standards and conditionings can affect a person's life adversely despite talent, efforts and merit. But the film has different moods at different points and I had scope to create cheerful, romantic and sad songs. Musically, it has elements of western classical (symphony orchestra), Indian classical (carnatic violin, harmonium, etc) drum and bass and Marathi folk.
I tried to cater to director Narendra Babu's (a popular Kannada filmmaker) vision and he wanted soulful Indian melodies. I tried to deliver exactly that.
How do you feel indie music genre is changing over the years?
Some artists and songwriters occupied the indie space earlier but it was dormant after that for a long time. And nowadays again it has become a culture in the fraternity and the ones who never thought about anything beyond film music are dabbling into non-film singles too. There is a major shift in the audiences' taste as well. This is an industry where the consumer controls the trends largely.
What kind of music are you listening to currently?
I'm absorbing the sounds of nature as much as I can as there are very few breathers in my current schedule. Composing music and listening to music simultaneously will drive me crazy. While creating new music I prefer silence because listening to anything else that is already done prevents originality from being born.
Who's your fave western singer and why?
Celine Dion because having an extremely trained voice sometimes makes a singer too technical. But I feel that she manages to have just the right proportions of emotions and grammar in her renditions.
What are your upcoming Bollywood and Tollywood projects?
I have recorded a Hindi song for Himesh Reshammiya besides a song for the film Malhar composed by Satish Chakraborty. I also recorded for Javed-Mohsin and Rashmi Virag and down south there are a few Telugu releases lined up.
Any album or EP you are coming up with?
I've written an album after one of my forest vacations. Creatively I'm ready to work on it but I'll let it bake for a while as there are too many things going on right now. I'm not in a hurry to release it. But I will make songs that you'll hear on my official YouTube channel. That is something I'm enjoying the most lately.