Half Girlfriend singer on her name change

If the name Reecha Tirupati sounds familiar, it’s because she was a reality show contestant on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge in 2007 and if she seems to resemble singer Shashaa Tirupati, it’s because they are the same person.

Most reality show contestants don’t make it big. But Shashaa managed, through the mentoring of AR Rahman, who gave her a break with Kochadaiyyan. She has not looked back since. Most recently she sung for Half Girlfriend’s  Baarish and Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga.

We ask her what the brouhaha is about her name. She says, “I’ve not changed it, but there’s a fair bit of confusion about it. I’ll explain: My legal name is Shashaa Kiran Tirupati. Kiran is my mom’s first name.”

The confusion began because Reecha became her stage name. She explains, “Richa was the name which I grew popular by because a) that’s what my parents called me at home and b) because my father used to organise shows in the name of Richa Tirupati, my ghar ka naam.”

She adds, “I’d come to India (from Canada) and a lot of people started mistaking me for Richa Sharma, which is why I eventually started going by my legal name. As far as the surname Tirupati is concerned, it’s a family name, it’s not our real surname. Our guruji believed in Lord Balaji, so he gave that to us as a title.”

Her troubles didn’t end there. “A lot of people in Allahabad (which is where I trained for about six years) thought that Tirupati was Tripathi, so that is why a lot of people I know also think my name is Reecha Tripathi. To clear all doubts, Richa Tirupati is my ghar ka naam and Shashaa Tirupati is my legal name. After a certain point of time, we just stopped clarifying because you can see how difficult it is to explain this whole ram-kahaani.”