The interview which appears below, was originally published on I Love A.R. Rahman Podcast in March 2021. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
The legendary playback singer opens up about her first meeting with A.R. Rahman, recording timeless classics like “Munbe Vaa” and “Barso Re,” and the spiritual experience of creating music
Shreya, thank you so much for coming on this podcast! It’s such an honor to have you as part of this tribute journey to A.R. Rahman. I’m honestly so excited and nervous – I haven’t slept for the last two days!
My pleasure! I’m absolutely thrilled to be here, Chander. What you’re doing is such a sweet gesture – being a fan of someone you look up to who has been a big part of your life. I feel you because I belong to that group of people who adore and absolutely look up to Rahman sir.
I totally feel why everyone is joining in because the kind of respect that he deserves and gets – and much more than that – not just in India but worldwide, there are people who look up to him. Especially for Indians like us, as musicians or listeners, he has been a revolutionary musician. He has changed the way we heard, we thought of music – Indian music. He has transformed the way Indian music should be heard, should be enjoyed.
His work has been path-breaking, and continuously for decades now he has been working with that kind of passion. I don’t see ever that Rahman sir has not been in his best form. I feel he’s constantly transforming and hasn’t stayed stuck in the 90s – the kind of music he’s doing now is so different from what he used to do in the 90s. We all, as musicians and fans and AR lovers as we call ourselves, have been part of that journey.
Do you remember the first time you ever met A.R. Rahman?
Actually, I think it was at Panchathan. I used to go to Chennai for recording. I started my career in films in 2002 when the film “Devdas” released, but from the very start I was also doing Tamil music. I got a chance to sing for Karthik Raja, and he introduced me to Rahman sir.
I used to be very frequent to Chennai then, and my dream was always to meet him, sing for him. Like any other singer, that was the ultimate achievement for any musician – to be able to collaborate, sing, or even meet or even be acknowledged by someone like him.
I used to go to his studio to drop CDs – those days we used to send our CDs. Noël sir used to be his secretary, his PA, and he was very sweet. He used to say that sir was always busy, so we used to drop in our stuff. One day he finally decided that probably he had heard about me or some of my music, and then finally I got a call from him!
I think I sang for a film called “Saathiya” – the song “Aye Udi Udi” – that was the first song I sang for him, following which “Munbe Vaa” happened. It was very early in my journey with Rahman sir.
What was it like when you met him for the first time? Were you nervous?
See, the thing with Rahman sir is that he is such huge talent. When you meet someone you’ve adored… to be honest, when I was growing up, I was only exposed to classical music or Bengali music at home, and Hindi old film songs. At my place, everyone who used to listen to music was limited to either old music, classical music, or Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali music.
I wasn’t much exposed to contemporary music in all my growing years. Maybe there were a few landmark films and albums which we had to listen to from the neighbor’s house or from friends, but they wouldn’t play at my place. But the only cassette which I pestered my dad to bring me was “Roja”!
That “Roja” cassette used to play so many times I think eventually we had to buy another one because it had gone bust. “Roja” released in 1991 or something like that, so I was six years old. From that time, without having seen him – there was no much television exposure like today – you make a mental picture of the person who created music like this.
With that kind of aura, that imagination, you grow up. Eventually you see him in interviews as TV became popular, some live concerts were aired, so many other songs and films he did. I used to perform all his songs – I would only pick up his songs like “Kehna Hi Kya” and things like that whenever there were programs in our community.
So from there to when I first came to Panchathan and met him – that journey has been humongous. It’s a shock of adulation, nervousness, the fact that this is my one chance to impress him. So many things go in your head as an aspiring singer or a fan – you’re all mixed up. You can’t be just a singer then, you are a fan first.
I don’t really remember the feelings, but of course I was a mess. But he really makes everyone around him very comfortable because he himself is very shy, doesn’t speak much. In fact, Rahman sir is much more open now than he was. There’s a big change from when I met him first – he used to be a person of only two words maximum. “Okay, yeah, okay, do that” – that kind of just two-three words and the thing is done.
Can you tell us about recording “Munbe Vaa”? That’s such an iconic track.
The experience has been absolutely fantastic – to see him at work, being on the mic and seeing how he makes that magic happen and getting to be a part of it. You always see as a third person, then you become the performer, but you’re also learning how he works and what goes through in the studio in the making of each hit.
“Munbe Vaa” and all that was crazy. I’m listening to the track and getting goosebumps even when the song isn’t fully done. I have sung the song, and after that so many things happened. When I get to hear the final track when it comes out, it’s just like a transformation – a beautiful magical tune with the basic programming he had done, additional stuff, the mix, the master, the sound, everything.
Then I’m not thinking about me as the singer – that it’s my song, I’m singing “Munbe Vaa.” I’m thinking it’s one of Rahman sir’s best songs! It has always been like that till date. Even when “Thaame” released, I was amazed because I sang this in the Panchathan studio. The arrangement was roughly almost there, whatever is the final thing was already fixed, although the live things weren’t done.
I knew the transitions were crazy – from where it starts and how it ends, the transition of scales and everything. But when you hear it in the final product, you forget that you’re a part of that song. I forget my participation in it and just listen to Rahman sir’s magic. That adulation has not changed – I am still equally in awe of the way he does his work, the way he uses vocals very differently.
You mentioned analyzing his work. What do you notice about his technical approach?
I keep analyzing how he works technically. I feel he gets very easily bored with repetition, so he does not repeat. In a song, every second bar is different. He will not repeat his rhythms, he’ll not repeat his chord progressions or the instruments. There has to be an element of surprise, but at the same time there’s an underlying phrase or repetitive thing going on very subtly, which you won’t realize what it is, but that’s binding the whole song together.
When we musicians or composers or singers meet, we often end up talking like this. I get calls from selected people in my industry because we are all fans. Immediately I’ll get a call: “I listened to your new Rahman track, and oh my god, did you hear what he did in the antara, the first verse?” We discuss in that kind of language.
You mentioned “Aye Udi Udi” having a very special memory. Can you share that experience?
“Aye Udi Udi” particularly is a track which I have very special memories with. It’s not a song, it’s an emotion. It doesn’t have a structure as such – it just transports you to some other world which you cannot put in words.
I felt that the night when I was recording. Usually Rahman sir’s recordings happen when you are awake the whole day and you finally are going to doze off, that’s when the call comes: “Okay, we are ready, let’s record.” That happened that day also. We had recorded “Manja Kani” in the morning, and he told me we have another track.
As usual, I got a call around 12:00 that “Please come to the studio, we have to record this.” I arrived – my mom used to be always with me, so she was dozing off in the waiting area. I’m now in the Panchathan main studio.
Panchathan has the original place which, after the floods in Chennai a couple of years ago, has changed a little, but the vibe is the same. It used to have this nice soft blue carpet. I arrive and Rahman sir is already creating the loop of the song on which we will jam and create it, and he has lit up his candle.
He’s in his zone. I’ve entered and been asked to go take the mic. He just told me, “Please can you jam something on this? Think this is raag Behag and do some alaaps. The word is ‘aye udi’ – ‘udi’ means beloved in Malayalam, and this is the song.”
I do not remember the time I started till the time it ended. I do not have memories of it – how much time went by. Maybe the candle, how much of it melted, could have told me how much time passed because I had an out-of-body, spiritual experience that night singing this track.
Maybe it was 2 in the night. I come out dazed because the track was so beautiful. He was playing something while I’m doing my alaaps, guiding me through his chord progressions. He’s always done that – while I’m on the mic, he’s pushing me in a certain direction without telling me.
That track – he was playing a very long track because I ended up singing a lot more, and then he chopped up and made the track out of it. But to be honest, that song’s memory – I do not remember when it started, when it ended. It has never happened to me in any song that I’ve recorded. I’m very aware of what I’m doing on the mic, but in that particular song I lost the sense of self and time and place. It was a really spiritual moment for me, and I have never experienced it ever again in any song that I’ve recorded.
What about Rahman sir’s sense of humor? Any memorable moments?
I find him actually quite hilarious! He has a very different way of looking at people and situations, so his sense of humor is very introspective and comes at very unexpected times when you’re not expecting it. The timing is very different with him, and it also depends on what kind of mood he’s in. He has to be very relaxed to have that kind of moment.
In my initial days, I only saw sir running around. There were people – the biggest names you can think of from directors to lyricists – waiting because there were so many parallel films going on at the same time. I don’t think he had time to even have a good time in his life, to have a laugh here and there.
I’ve actually started seeing him in a lighter mood of late. In the past few years, I’ve had times when sir is sitting and spending that extra 10 minutes not talking about the song or the film – he’s just joking. Sometimes he gets a little… he loves his children and really wishes they do their best, so he will poke a little fun at his son’s cost, have a little fun.
I find him an adorable father. I’m seeing a very different side of Rahman sir – that he’s a family man, he’s a father, he has these moments of laughs and comic timing that I never noticed earlier because I’d only seen him too busy and always sleepless, always finding time to sleep a little bit.
To find a very relaxed man who has given so much to us, this legacy of music, and finally he’s getting the time to enjoy his life and look back and work with that sense of calm – it’s very joyous to see that.
Tell us about recording “Barso Re” from “Guru.” That must have been incredible working with Rahman sir, Mani Ratnam, and Gulzar saheb.
“Barso Re” is such a big milestone in my life! 2007 – I was recording this, and to ever sing for the most celebrated combination – Rahman sir and Mani sir – just to think of working with this duo was like a thrill for me. When I got to know that I’m singing for this film “Guru” and meeting the most amazing partnership, I would say, of mentor and collaborators, I was in seventh heaven.
Then to know that Gulzar saheb would be writing this song – this couldn’t get better for me! I was so thrilled. When I heard the song… basically when I heard the song, I always used to get the tune beforehand. When I’m sitting outside in the waiting area with a Walkman, someone would teach me the song. You have to remember this tune before you go into the singing room with all the lyrics in hand, trying to make sense of the meter, which tune part is for which line.
Gulzar saheb has also come now, and he’s so loving. I have a great repertoire and very beautiful relationship with Gulzar uncle over these years, but that was one of the first initial times I got to meet him, so I was very nervous.
But when I went into the studio, again that beautiful transformation happens. The moment you get inside the main Panchathan studio, the whole world shuts off around it and we are trying to do some magical things. Sir is doing fast programming, playing some things, changing, cutting, pasting, thinking “Oh we should change this.”
I don’t even know whether the tune what I’ve learned is right or not – what am I going to do once I’m on the mic? But the fun started once I came onto the mic, and he just went from there. The song changed from where to where in that session actually! There were many other things happening in the song that were all changed. All the variations that I took, improvisations – they all became a part of the composition then and there.
He was constantly playing his progressions and pushing me to do something on it. The harmonies on “na re na re” were so magical because there were some eight-ten different harmonies which I did on that. Those are all my voices below “na re na re,” and it’s so cool! I was like “Oh my god, I’ve never sounded so cool ever!” Like this is the Rahman magic that I have always wondered – why every artist sounds so different in his songs.
Then how he… when you think that okay, this song with these parts, such lovely melody is going, there will be so many different chords and melodic things happening underneath, he stripped it down completely and made it so rhythmic. Even the percussive nature of the song, the use of the sampled percussion sound that he used is so unlike what I would have thought he would have used.
Then how he brings the Gujarati folk in, and from there the melody starts, and the antara is just crazy! The whole process was evolution of a song in that studio in those few hours. We saw Gulzar saheb also jamming then and there, changing his lines. He had written a lot of other lines, out of which he… so everyone was collaborating in that room.
That is the power of the greats in one room – Ratnam sir, Rahman sir, Gulzar saheb, and I don’t know what I was doing! I had no idea what I was doing, but I was having fun. I had so much fun, and then I got to hear the song finally and understood everything, because till then I was just having fun but didn’t know what was going on.
How it turned out, how it was picturized – it became an iconic song not just for the whole cast and team, but for me it was one of the biggest milestones of my career. That year “Barso Re” happened, and I probably had not sung extremely rhythmic songs till before that. Following that, I did something for other music directors, so my image also kind of changed from that song onwards. Otherwise I was getting to sing only romantic songs or classical-based songs, but I wasn’t getting to sing something which was out of my zone. I got to do that in this song.
How do you prepare before a recording session with Rahman sir?
I don’t do any preparations! I just go with a fresh mind. I need to have my sleep before that so that I’m not tired, because if I’m tired then I can’t do my best. Unlike Rahman sir, I think he works best without sleep, so I feel I cannot do that.
I need to have rest and go inside the studio with an empty mind. Because if I have a… actually it has been a process for me because there have been days where I’ve done three-four songs in a day, hopping between studios, different languages, different genres of songs. I’m just going into a studio having just finished a different song, and my mind would be full of that tune or that experience.
I feel I have somehow learned how to switch off. When I enter the studio, when I’m with a certain composer, I switch off whatever I was thinking of, whatever I was doing before that. Even if there were some personal issues – life goes on, so there will be personal issues, work-related issues – my mind becomes completely calm and switched off when I enter a studio. That’s the only preparation I need.
Otherwise, the mornings are very important – you warm up before you leave for recordings. A little bit of warm-up is important. Otherwise the studio itself is your warm-up place – you do your stretches and vocal stretches when nobody is listening to you, nobody’s looking at you. You quickly do it in a corner and start your work.
What was it like recording a duet with Rahman sir himself – “Snehithudu”?
That was again quite a thrilling experience because I don’t think I had done a duet before this song with him. I’ve heard a lot of his duets with others but not with me, so I was very thrilled that he has his voice and… you know what, Rahman sir’s vocals have a magical quality to it. There is no second person who can do what he can do. There’s an effortlessness that he has in his voice, and there’s some emotion which comes automatically without him trying also. I feel he doesn’t have to try – he just has to sing his melody and it flows in so beautifully.
There’s a part which overlaps where I have to take a run on whatever he’s singing. He was right there – he recorded this song and it was in Bombay studio, YRF studio – and I was like “Oh wow, this is all happening!” It’s not a pre-thought thing – he’s thinking all of that right then and there. He’s asking me to do certain things while he’s thinking of his lines, asking me to do certain things over that, and his progressions and everything is coming right in place.
There’s so much complication if you go into the details of the musicality of it, but everything falls very smoothly. I think geniuses like him, it takes no effort for him to even think of complicated stuff like that. For us it becomes like school – we start thinking, analyzing “Oh my god, how did they think like this?” But for him it doesn’t. Greats like this come very rarely on planet Earth, and when they do and when you see them at work, you feel there’s not even… he’s not even making that effort to think. He’s just doing it like he’s breathing. He sang it like that, he composed it like that, and how it turned out finally was absolutely magical.
Let’s talk about “Thaame” – this track has been such a blessing during the pandemic.
This is just pre-lockdown. I had gone to Chennai for recording a couple of songs for him, and this one was straight from the classic Rahman sir book. The moment it started, Karthik, his engineer, was like “This is Rahman sir’s classic Rahman sir, isn’t it?” We were all thrilled.
I was learning the song and we started recording it. He was in a very, very jovial mood that day – just joking around, having fun, just so easy that day. I was like “Okay, this is something I kind of craved for a long time,” being a listener myself. Every Rahman fan, especially from my age group who has lived that time when we were all growing up listening to all his classic tracks, we want to hear a typical classic, the 90s style Rahman sir a little bit. We all crave for it.
I forgot that I’m singing it! I was like “Oh, this song will be so much loved by all my friends who are Rahman geeks like we listen to everything that releases of his.” I was like “I will love it, they will all love it. I will tell them ‘Keep something like this is coming for you guys, just wait.'” Then I forgot that I have to sing also!
I sang and we had so much fun. Of course, like how it happens, when I’m singing the song I had no idea what all will be done on the song once I leave the studio. So many things were added – small changes and those added nadams to the percussions, from electronic percussions to Indian rhythms to Indian instruments to Western… the blend! Nobody can think of a blend like this. There is, if you put logic to it, there’s no logic, but it all makes sense. There is no logic to why it’s coming after this, but it sounds so cohesive and so wonderful.
I told sir when the lockdown happened, even I was very low because someone like me who has only lived outside the house, has never been at home for months, stuck at home and not leaving for recordings, not leaving for concerts, not flying anywhere – it was a new life you have to get used to. I was feeling very low, to be honest.
When this song came and the monsoons were just about to hit that time… monsoons in Bombay are like we celebrate monsoons! We wait for barish. Barish makes you romantic, you listen to monsoon music. I was like “Oh, this weather and this song,” and I’m sitting in my balcony and listening to it on loop. My husband is looking for me like “Where am I?” and I do not listen to my own songs like this on loop!
I don’t listen to my own songs. I listen to it once after it releases, then I’m done with it. I don’t get attached to it. I’m like “Okay, it’s good. If I keep listening then I’ll be like ‘Wow, what all I’ve done,’ and then I’ll start finding faults in it.” I do find a lot of faults in my singing and I get bored of it, so I don’t listen to it.
But for this song, it was such a relief for me as well because a song of this nature – it’s not just a great song, it’s a great production. So much is happening, it’s like again a homework that I get to do – my typical Rahman analysis. “What all he did, oh my god, this progression, oh my god!” I don’t have anybody to talk to, I don’t have anyone to discuss it with right now because I’m stuck at home and not getting to meet anyone.
I called Rahman sir and said “Thank you for this! Thank you for this gift.” It was so necessary, and I’m so glad that you released it at a time… it’s a celebration song. It’s a song of a festival, it’s a pre-wedding song. You can see all the animation is also done very nicely. You needed that fresh breath of air which he gave because there was a lot of negativity on news and everything was very negative. I’m glad that now soon this lockdown will be over, the film will release, and we can all reinvent the song again.
Any final message for aspiring singers and the I Love ARR community?
Words of wisdom do not come that often in my head because I’m not that wise, to be honest, because I’m a very emotional person. So I’ll only speak from the heart and say that music now is something that should not become a job, should not become work. It should stay as a part of your system in such a way that without listening or singing or playing your instrument or practicing, you feel the day is incomplete.
It should become like how you breathe, how you eat, how you take a bath – that is the way the feeling should be for this art. If you have that kind of passion, you’re going to go a long way.
Don’t take shortcuts in life because in this time, people tend to see that okay, shortcuts do work for a lot of people, but that’s not for long term. Keep the right people as benchmarks in front of you – people who really have made a difference in music – and you need to become one of them. You don’t need to just do it for the sake of fame and success. Do it for the love of music, and then you will be there for longevity and forever.
That’s my only few heart-to-heart words of not wisdom, but truth.
Thank you so much, Shreya! This has been an absolute dream come true.
Thank you! I really want to give all my love to you for your efforts, and I’m sure this is going in the right direction. It’ll reach out to all Rahman fans and people who anyway know Rahman sir’s work, but it’ll also reach out to people who have not had access to know his real life a little bit, insight towards his life and music.
What’s also happened as part of this podcast journey is there’s something called the I Love ARR Community which has evolved, and hundreds and hundreds of fans from every part of the world have come and joined me in this journey. They’re trying to support me in this journey, and there are so many of them who look up to you as an idol and massive inspiration.
I hope this inspires more and more musicians to take up music and do serious music. It’s not like serious music has to be serious because Rahman sir has never done a song to prove a point. He’s always done music which is magical and has come from a very intelligent and very spiritual space. We need more like him.
Through you, I’m giving this message to him that what he’s doing through his Conservatory is very important. I’m so glad that he’s not just satisfied with what he’s done – he’s trying to create a whole new generation of people who will continue this dream and the way of loving music, doing music, and worshipping music. It’s very important to secure a very safe future to say that we have a good generation ahead of good musicians, and we need it very badly now.
