´Kehdo Naa was written pretty spontaneously´ - Shweta Pandit

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‘Kehdo Naa’ is written and composed by you, with Kevin Doucette at the piano. Tell us how this single happened.

Kevin sent me a beautiful piano arrangement from LA during Christmas and I loved it so much that I flew into LA for New Year’s and started writing Kehdo Naa. I ate up his holiday time and worked on this song, we didn’t take a break for a single day and it was worth it! Kehdo Naa was written pretty spontaneously. I just wanted to write straight from the heart and keep the lyrics very simple, expressing love for your beloved.

You can listen to Kehdo Naa here

The song is very soulful and meaningful too. Where did you find the inspiration to write such beautiful lyrics.

The inspiration came pretty much from my own experiences on love; I am not very good at expressing it but there’s so much one wants to say but keeps thinking twice. Most times, I feel like saying it but I always stop myself because I don’t know if it sounds too emotional and that’s when I thought there should a song, with no barriers of thought and what better way to express than music.

Do you have more plans for music composition in the future? Who would you like to collaborate in India or an international level?

This is the first song and it’s been so amazingly well received. There’s been only likes on You Tube, which is fabulous! I was scared there will be dislikes but not a single one in over 2 months of uploading, which has been very encouraging. The comments have been about people expecting more from me as a composer, so I’d love to. Am currently in LA and want to come up with another song. The songs on my You Tube channel is purely a give back of love to all my musical family across the globe, who have made me what I am. I have been singing since I was 4 and I still do, which is the best gift from God to me.

I want to continue this as I don’t want just Bollywood to be the only way to reach out to my audience. Though Bollywood has undoubtedly got a greater reach and I am what I am because of film songs, but I hope my songs are spread online and reach out to everyone. The other day, someone wrote to me about Kehdo Naa in French, which was amazing. I never expected that.

My sister, Shraddha Pandit is the reason I actually got inspired to compose and write my own music, because she is so good at it. She’s written songs for my music show mission USTAAD on 9x channel, where A.R Rahman Sir judged her songs the best and that’s when we realised her talent at it. She’s also written for Salim Sulaiman in Azaan and also composed for the Mallika Sherawat movie Hisss which was an international project. That’s when I wanted to try it too.

You are known to be a very versatile singer and your discography speaks for itself. How about composing a very racy track – high tempo with beats? Is that something that interests you?

I want to sing an English song next, so am working on it. It should be a dance number. I haven’t made it yet, but it’s on my mind, let’s see how that goes. Thug Le was a racy song and everyone’s loved it. But I want to do more music that inspires more people to dance to it and sing along!

Your song in Angel – ‘Rubaru (Kyun Faaslein Hai)’ is another great track of yours which capture your vocals range, just like in ‘Kehdo Naa’. Would you like to be given such songs to sing in Bollywood?

I think I agree with you. I should get more singing based songs in Bollywood, more solo tracks, which explore my vocal abilities, so far I haven’t got too many and even if I do, they should be in a project and popular actor to be recognised on a big scale, so it’s a matter of right place at the right time. If you notice my Punjabi, Telugu and Tamil songs, they are all solo hits and in the biggest projects, whether it's Billa 2 (Tamil), Shirdi Sai (Telugu) or the latest Pinky Moge Wali (Punajbi) which I never planned, they just happened and that’s why I even won my first Filmfare award in the South when I didn’t even know, my song is such a massive hit there. I think these things cannot be planned. One has to go with the flow but I do hope Bollywood composers take me more seriously.

‘Thug Le’ of Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl, ‘Charha De Rang’ of Yamla Pagla Deewana as well as ‘Madhubala’ and ‘Do Dhaari Talwaar’ from Mere Brother Ki Dulhan were very well received. What are your reactions?

The reactions have been stupendous. Madhubala and Thug Le are instant hits with the audiences. Do Dhaari is one of my favourites but it was promoted late so people didn’t notice it as much but it’s such a kickass song.

You recently sang with Sonu Nigam for the title track of Joker. How was the experience?

Singing with Sonu Nigam itself is a big win for a playback singer. I really enjoy singing with him because it’s a great learning experience and adds to your growth. He’s one of out finest talents. I have recorded songs with Sonu in the past, which didn’t get noticed much, in James, Chatur Singh 2 star, Teesri Aankh etc, but sadly no one really knows those songs. Shirish Kunder the director, called me and we recorded this song with GV Prakash, the composer. It was nice singing for Sonakshi too. Am glad this song got noticed so well because it reached out well.

You’ll be seen in Shaitan’s fame director Bejoy Nambiar’s David, which is a Hindi-Tamil flick. Would you be accepting offers for Bollywood?

I am so looking forward to David! I think Bejoy is the reason I could think of doing my first film. He’s just the best person/director to have started this new journey of acting in a feature film. It’s a great line-up of actors and I have learnt so much during the making of it. I never went to any acting school and I don’t have any idea of the technicalities of it. So largely I learnt it all on set while shooting and observing other actors. I play an interesting role but it’s not the typical glam and love story, so people shouldn’t be thinking that’s what am doing! But am happy to be working with Jiiva, Vinay Virmani, Lara Dutta, Sheetal Menon, Satish Kaushik and offcourse veteran actor, Nasser Sir. There’s also Tabu, Vikram, Isha Sharvani, Neil Nitin Mukesh and many more fabulous actors in different parts of the story. I can’t talk more than this right now, but it’s out in January 2013.

Your songs in Mohabbatein, James, Fight Club and Partner are still being listened today. If you are given the choice to pick up a song of yours that is very close to your heart, which one is it?

Mohabbatein is still fresh in people’s minds, especially abroad. It’s hard for me to pick my own songs but I enjoy singing for MM Kreem, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Mickey J Meyer a lot as I think they have given me some of my best songs. I enjoy working with Salim Sulaiman a lot. I have been touring with AR Rahman across the globe and I’ve learnt a lot from him. Though we have recorded in the past, the songs haven’t got released yet, I hope everyone gets to hear those songs, they are amazing.

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