Nikhita Gandhi has always been full of surprises. The popular Bollywood playback singer, who hails from Kolkata, studied Dental Surgery in Chennai’s S R M College and Hospital while she trained in Hindustani Classical music at AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory. The multilingual artiste, who is known to straddle genres effortlessly, started her career with Ladio in Tamil and earlier this year sang Tumi Bolbo Na Tumi and Janina Bhalolage for the Bengali movie Kishmish. Having worked with the likes of Amit Trivedi and Shankar Mahadevan, 29-year-old Nikhita recently released her single Bura Na Mano Yaara. The mellifluous voice behind Raabta, Burj Khalifa, Naach Meri Rani and Qaafirana, the singer chats with us about the making of her new EP and what it takes to make indie music:
Do tell us more about your new EP. How long did it take you to put it together?
This EP is fairly new, I wrote Pitch Black Dark randomly one day about a month ago when I was jamming out some ideas and then the other songs followed that same week.
What is it that holds these three songs together, according to you?
The sound, the intent, the emotion… I feel like apart from a very homogeneous sound production and scape, the EP emotionally also has a similar style of writing… all three songs, especially Khushnaseeb and Dark have a sort of similar style of writing where the person grows through the song from someone with an outward co-dependence to a sense of self-realisation and growth. Tell us about the lyrics and the inspiration behind them. Most of it is based on life experiences. Saazish is a flirtatious love song that explores the classic ‘weak in the knees’ emotions when you see the one who you’re attracted to. Khushnaseeb was a really special song for me. It explores a very complex ‘catch 22’ situation in life. Life is about the comings and goings of people and experiences, but when you meet someone who moves you and they leave you, do you still consider yourself ‘lucky’ to have met them? All in all, the writing has been very ‘unapologetically Niki’… I’ve not stuck to a specific language and flowed in and out of English and Hindi, just like my chain of thoughts.
How has the world of music changed post the lockdowns? Has it become easier to showcase your music now?
I don’t know about easier but this era we now live in has brought a little fearlessness in the art world, which is amazing. People are putting out more music, being themselves and not trying to stick to stereotypes and expectations and trends… though that exists too, but there is a lot of path breaking stuff as well.
From a personal point of view between your work for Bollywood and your indie music is there any difference? Do you approach it differently?
Yes, the whole process is different as it should be. There is one common thread though and that’s: giving it your all! But all in all, there is a lot more involvement when it comes to indie from the music to video and promotions… which is exciting but also kind of scary!
In today’s world of reels and social media trends, do you feel the pressure to ensure your work is part of it?
Oh, all the time! I constantly have to ‘strive’ to be an influencer because of the data science that favours the numbers, but I’m always trying to pull myself away from it because I never want any of it to take away from the purity of being an artiste. What next? What are you working on? I want to explore a larger project… maybe an album! Though, I don’t set goals like this because I feel the music should dictate what’s next… wherever creativity takes me!
Available on all streaming platforms.
- Sabrina Rajan