Neeti Mohan on collaborating with her sisters, Shakti and Mukti: Our collaboration is for life

For Neeti, Shakti and Mukti, Mohan is more than their last name. For the first time, the sisters — one of whom is a singer and the other two are dancers — are collaborating for a music video that celebrates Lord Krishna, whose one of the many names is Mohan. Called Kanha Re, the raag-based composition is sung by Neeti, while the video features her and her sisters as gopis. “Our father is a Krishna devotee and he always wanted us to learn Kathak, but we ended up training in Bharatnatyam. So, we wanted to dedicate this track to him,” says Shakti, who came up with the idea to make the video two years ago when she heard her elder sister, Neeti, humming the tune at home. “She had taught us this song when we were kids. So, we have fond memories of it. I thought it would be great if she recorded it,” the Dil Dosti Dance actress adds. “Both of us have won competitions in school after singing it,” Mukti chips in. 

While Shakti and Mukti are established dancers, for Neeti, the video was a lot of hard work. “She trained very hard because she was dancing after years and I was amazed by her performance. After watching the video, no one can tell that we are professional dancers and she isn’t,” smiles Shakti before adding, “It reminded us of our school days when we would dance together.”

The video, shot in Rohet Garh in Rajasthan, is choreographed by Kruti Mahesh (who had worked on Ghoomar from Padmaavat) while Mukti designed the costumes. “Usually, in filmi numbers, we don’t get to do what we want. And this song is close to our culture and roots,” points out Neeti. Mukti states, “Today, we don’t see much classical or semi-classical dance on the screen, so we wanted to do something in Indian style.”

When Mukti and Shakti’s collaboration on Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You got them about five million views on YouTube, they decided to bring out more non-Bollywood stuff, Kanha Re being one of them.

They have collaborated with each other for events and stage shows, but this is the first time all of them have come together for a non-film music video. “It took us two years to finally put this together because it was difficult for us to match our dates,” Shakti tells us. Even though they plan to collaborate often for videos, Neeti says that it will always be on merit and only if each of them fits the bill. “Our collaboration is for life, but it will never be just because we are sisters,” the Jiya Re singer says. 

Shakti recently made her debut as a Bollywood choreographer with Nainowale Ne in Padmaavat that has been rendered by Neeti. “She has sung it beautifully and I learnt so much observing Sanjay Leela Bhansali at work,” states Shakti. 

The video of Kanha Re is all set to release by the end of this month. Though the sisters haven’t finalised their next collaboration, they’re keen to work on a musical about women empowerment.