She sang as the face of Deepika Padukone in ‘Raabta’ for the title track "Raabta", she was the voice behind Jugnu and BurjKhalifa. She has done loads of work in Bollywood and also in the Independent music scene.

In an exclusive interview, the Bengali – Punjabi ‘Maharani’ -  Nikhita Gandhi traces her early days in music, her journey from learning dentistry, working with A R Rahman and moving to do some major Bollywood work.

You've done a Hindustani classical music in the very beginning, but you don't seem to have done anything in that space. You’ve done Bollywood, Indie kind of stuff, so Hindustani classical was never part of your timeline.

Let me explain my journey. I've learned Hindustani classical as a kid and that's been my upbringing in music.But I never thought I would be doing music professionally. So it was an extracurricular activity for me, like dance, sports.I was a science student, like an academic kid, so I ended up pursuing dentistry.Music just kept kind of happening in my life. So when I started singing in films, it was like an accidental singer because I didn't plan to do music professionally. So of course, the fact that I've learned Hindustani in my childhood has definitely honed skills for me.But I never thought that that's my profession, that's what I want to do.  Having said that, before I did anything professionally,my first big film song was with A. R. Rahman sir. It was a Tamil song in the film ‘Aai’ way back in 2004. But before that, the first project that I did, where I released music, was actually an Nazrul Geeti project, where I did classically based stuff on an album called ‘Kotha’.

So share something on this album titled ‘Kotha’.

Yes, so ‘Kotha’, is based on semi-classical songs by a poet called Kazi Nazrul Islam. So it's called Nazrul Geeti. So that's actually the first project I've ever done before anything started off. I started singing in films and stuff like that sort of started defining me as an artist. This album was released in 2013 as a collection of rediscovered poems of Kazi Nazrul Islam, painting his tunes and words in a fresh and contemporary space. The album is very close to my heart as it was always my dream to pay tribute to these beautiful compositions.

So how did dentistry take a backseat and you went for music? 

So I was in Chennai studying dentistry, doing my BDS and that's where I met Rahman sir. I'd actually joined his music school again, just to keep music as a passion, just as a hobby. I’m  somebody who likes doing 15 things together. I don't know why, but it helps me concentrate more. I feel like if I'm doing this one thing, I get bored very easily. So I like having two, three, you know, hustles together. So it just how I concentrate. So AR sir heard me at an audition and then he started calling me for professional recordings. That's how it started.

So you have sung in many languages. So how do you manage to sing in like Tamil, Bengali,

Tamil was easier to learn because I was in Chennai. So I was used to the people speaking Tamil, though I didn't speak a word of Tamil when I recorded my first Tamil song. But when it comes to Telugu, Kannada, I think it's just more about being observant. Like you just have to do some kind of mimicry, acting, singing and just being an observer, sort of pretend like you can sing in that language. 

So do you still look at dentistry as a part of a profession or you've totally given it up? 

I finished my course in dentistry and got my degree, I had already started singing in films. So I barely practiced for a few months and then I delved fully into films.

So any family or somebody into music and all that? 

No one is into music in my family, but there's family in dentistry, which is why I was very happy. I was like, yeah, both my parents are dental surgeons. So I was like, great. I've seen this all my life. I don't want to do the same thing. 

So how is that Bollywood was calling you and you also did Indie music at the same time? 

When I was a kid I had no intention to be a singer, I used to write music. I used to compose my own songs in English and I was like this proper indie kid. Even in Chennai, I used to sing in pubs and I was part of the indie scene. So in the very core, I'm definitely an independent artist.  Everything that's happened in my journey has, I think, also just broadened my perspective towards music, because I was one of those indie artists who were very like Bollywood, what is that. I'm an independent artist, but then I started singing in films and I started singing in Tamil and then like so many other languages, Hindi (pauses). I felt I was a bit narrow minded to think that way. Music artistry is so vast it is so never ending. With each song, with each project, with each new artist I would meet, I've grown because of the exposure that I've had to film music and all the incredible people I've got to work with. 

You have worked with so many artists like Amit Trivedi and Pritam to name a few. What advice have you taken from them that made you a better singer? 

I've really enjoyed the faith they've shown in me as an artist. I have met composers who I've grown up listening to and then I interact with them and find that they're so normal, and they tell me that they love my voice.  I'm like, you're saying that to me. That's, it's very overwhelming.

But you realise that they're just human beings who are incredibly talented. So when they interact with you and they make you comfortable, they just let you do your thing. So be it Amit Trivedi, Pritam Da, Ram Sampath, they're just like, do your thing. I'm sort of thrown into that recording booth with the freedom of being myself. I really admire that about them. 

So you released this album called ‘Hamsakal’.

Yeah, that was a single. But after that I have released a lot more. I don't have a headcount, but I did an EP called ‘Saazish’ sometime in June 2022, which had three songs. In between all of that, I've released a lot of singles. I released a single called ‘Pyaar Mein Pagal’ last year. There have been the other collaborations with Badshah and Guru Randhawa. I've also released a song called ‘Maharani’ again in 2022. So I've been releasing a lot of independent music.

So they have this theme called Royal Stag, Generation Large. So what is your opinion on that? 

It's a movement of inclusivity and sort of breaking barriers when it comes to music and art, because we're always talking about the next generation and the future. I think Royal Stag Boombox is basically embracing that through this movement of Bollywood, hip hop coming together. So I think that's what it represents.

Any future plans for the next few months? 

I will be working on our track with Royal Stag Boombox, which is something that's going to happen in the next couple of months.

Bollywood and your Independent music. Which do you prefer?

I don't think I prefer one over the other. Of course, I feel a lot of joy in making music, being in the process, it's like your baby, because you're giving a piece of yourself every time you compose something or write something and something that you've created. It’s a very rewarding, but a very strenuous process also because there's so much to do. When you're singing in playback, your involvement is a lot less, but the result is huge. Both are very different yet very rewarding processes.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira