Rhythm of success
P. K. AJITH KUMAR
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Richa Sharma's voice, talent and determination have helped her make a mark in Bollywood.
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... Hindi film music was not used to a voice like mine.
Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup
DREAM-COME-TRUE: Richa Sharma says she always wanted to be a singer.
Richa Sharma always wanted to be a singer. When she was studying in Class XI, she told her father, Pandit Daya Shankar, that she did not want to go in for higher studies as she wanted to devote all her time to music.
With her father's blessings, she went to Mumbai instead and, after a few years of struggle, made her mark as a playback singer in Bollywood.
Versatile singer
She proved that she is one of the most versatile singers around. If she could bring out the sensuality of Malaika Arora with her superb rendition of `Mahi ve... ' (`Kaante'), she could also do justice to a melodious `Kya dard hai... ' (`Rudraksh'). Whether it be the racy `Nikal chali be... ' (`Soch') or the folk-based `Main samajh gayee... ' (`Taal'), Richa effortlessly sang them all with verve.
"The song from `Taal' gave me the break," says Richa who was in Kozhikode for a show. She continues, "And I got it in the most unexpected way imaginable. Like every singer, I had a dream of singing for A.R. Rahman and I was willing to wait. One night, singer Sukhvinder Singh, whom I had met some time back, sent me a note asking me to contact him immediately. It was past midnight. I had no cell phone then and my landline phone was not working. So I had to go to a public telephone booth to make the call. He told me that he was sending his car to fetch me and that I was to record a song."
"I went to Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts studio in Sukhvinder's car. Then I saw him, A.R. Rahman. I couldn't believe I was going to sing for him! "
The music of `Taal,' one of Rahman's best scores, topped the charts and Richa had arrived.
"I had made my debut with `Salma Pe Dil Aa Gaya', whose producer-director, Sawan Kumar Tak, had seen me singing bhajans," Richa reminisces.
It was through bhajans, especially `Mata ke jagran,' that the world came to know of her talent.
"I used to sing in Faridabad and Delhi and would charge Rs. 11 per show when I was eight," she says with a laugh.
The singer and scintillating performer now charges much more for her shows. Apart from her hits, she renders Sufi songs and popular numbers of yesteryear singers such as Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum and Reshma, sometimes even imitating their style of singing.
"I really enjoy singing on stage. I also enjoyed hosting `Antakshari' on Zee TV," says the singer about whom Khushwant Singh once wrote, `Amongst her millions of admirers, I am the latest.'
Not an easy task
Richa says it was not easy to get a foothold in Bollywood with her kind of singing.
"At that time, Hindi film music was not used to a voice like mine. Richa's voice did get its due of course and now she continues to top the charts with different types of songs.
She is confident that her song `Bitiya... ' in the forthcoming Aishwarya Rai starrer `Umrao Jaan,' the promo of which is being aired on television channels these days, will be a chartbuster.
Her biggest regret is that her father did not live long enough to see her career blossom. "He would have been so proud of me," she says.
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