Shalmali Kholgade rose to fame in 2012 with the song Paareshan from the Yash Raj Film Ishaqzaade, but her musical journey started much before that. She is very unlike most of the Bollywood singers, she keeps to herself and she’s not at all pushy. Even at the time, I approached to interview her, she looked happy and content sitting quietly in a corner away from the media glare. It was only when we got talking, I realized what an intelligent, fun and easy person she is. She knows exactly what she wants and what her strengths and weaknesses are. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
Her latest Bollywood song, ‘Single Raine De’ from the Kangana Ranaut movie, Simran, is already popular at most of the dandia nights this year, so we start our conversation with the same. “Sachin Jigar are very close friends, we worked together some 3 years back, for Shudh Desi Romance. I like working with them since they are friendly and set up a nice musical atmosphere, there is no performance pressure so it makes it more conducive to deliver things the way they want. This song was a spur of the moment thing, Jigar called and asked me to come to the studio and sing a few lines. I never say no to them so I went to the studio and eventually landed up singing the song. It was the first time I did a rap, but it’s more like a conversation rap, it’s like the character that Kangana plays, is trying to say it. Singing this in a Gujarati accent was difficult,” she says. But she admits that it was a fun learning experience because she had to act while singing this song.
Shalmali admits that she had never intended to sing for Bollywood because she prefers singing western songs more and she also admits that the quality of her voice is not suited for Bollywood films. “I personally feel I am not cut out for Bollywood because of my tonal quality is not the playback kind. I have a whole western style of singing but not all characters in Bollywood films are within that genre so I don’t do those many songs,” says Shalmali. It’s interesting to know how she got her first break with Paareshan; A friend of her’s who was working with Amit Trivedi told her that he was looking for a fresh voice. She casually sent some demos that she had made for the application for LA school of Music. When Amit heard the demo, he asked her to sing and the rest is history. She went on to sing many more numbers like Daaru Desi, Aga Bhai Halla, and Balam Pichkari, to name a few.
However, music was always an integral part of her life since her mother is a trained Hindustani classical music teacher. But the funny part is Shalmali says she never like Indian Classical Music. “Maybe because it was too easy to get, since things that are too easy to get, we normally tend to not value it or like it,” she laughs. She says that she loves singing live. “I do a lot of shows and I love singing live. I love the feel of the energy of a live audience. It all started when I sang in a lot of bands in college and I realized that I like English music, then I decided that I want to make a career out of that, write my own music, produce it etc.” she tells us.
But, Shalmali has had to make some difficult choices in life too, at the time she was offered to sing Paareshan, she also got admission into the LA School of Music, where she had always dreamt of studying but she had to make a tough choice between the two. It was a leap of faith that she needed to take. But like they say sometimes listening to your intuition is a good thing to do, Paareshan went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year and there has been no looking back for this talented singer.
Team HFT wishes her more success!
