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Crooning glory

Photo: K.R. Deepak

On song Shreya Ghoshal

“Totally unexpected,” comes the dulcet voice over the phone, when you congratulate Shreya Ghoshal for winning the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Female Playback Singer for her foot-tapping “Chandu Thotille” in “Banaras”.

“I never thought I would get an award for a Malayalam song. The language is not all that easy; I must thank Jayachandran Sir [M. Jayachandran] for giving me such a lovely song and helping me do justice to it,” says Shreya.

Winning awards seems to come naturally to this talented youngster who has already won four National awards and three State awards.

Language is no barrier for this 26-year-old who has sung in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, in addition to her mother tongue, Bengali. What is special is the way Shreya manages to get the right enunciation and expression in all languages.

“Oh, I have a special way of writing the lyrics when they are dictated to me. No matter what the language, even if it is Bengali, I write them down in Hindi. I have certain notations and markings to indicate the way words should be pronounced. Moreover, I listen carefully when the lyrics are read to me,” she says.

Shreya also requests the music director or the recording in-charge to explain the situation in which the song is sung. That, she feels, is what helps her give each song that special touch.

Working with a wide range of music directors is one of the biggest advantages of being a playback singer.

“No two days are the same. Rahman sir, Ilayaraaja sir, Vishal-Shekar…. each director, studio, language, genre and song is unique, and I enjoy every bit of it. Awards do motivate me but, above all, it is the sheer pleasure of making music that keeps me going.” Talent shows

A firm believer in talent hunts, being the winner of two herself, Shreya says that such shows have given many talented singers a platform to capture the imagination of a global audience, as it happened in her case. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the celebrity judge on an episode was captivated by her singing, and made her sing for Aishwarya Rai in “Devdas”.

After that, pitch-perfect Shreya was flooded with offers from either sides of the Vindhyas.

“These shows have opened a world of opportunity for so many singers. Somewhere, someone might be listening and give the singer the right break. Earlier, there used to be a huge gap between the top-rung singers and the rest; not because they were less talented. Now, the gap has narrowed thanks to reality shows.”

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