Want to try all genres of music: Shreya Ghoshal

Ever since her debut in playback singing in Devdas, singer Shreya Ghoshal has scaled great heights. With her recent hits — Ooh la la (Dirty Picture) and Chikni Chameli — being the tune everyone’s humming to, Shreya is happy to call it a “lucky 2012” for her. “It has been an amazing start. First, Oh la la happened - which is very retro, very ’80s, very nakhra, and then the item number Chikni,” says Shreya. Though she had sung the number Hont Rasile (Welcome), she feels that Chikni Chameli is the “first huge item number” that she has sung so far. “Hont Rasile was a very soft, light rendition while Chikni is very hardcore, very folk, like typical Maharashtrian music... very energetic,” she explains.

Shreya reveals that while she recorded the song, she had a real bad throat. “I just gave a trial recording. And apparently it matched so well with the whole feel of the song that when I went to redo the song — and I really wanted to — the producers told me that it sounds better in the first version. So I had to recreate that voice to do the fillers,” says Shreya. “Yes, I am very susceptible to cold like any Mumbaikar,” she quips.

And here’s one little known fact about Shreya. Most of her hit songs like Silsila yeh chahat ka (Devdas), Jadoo hai nasha hai, have been sung with a bad throat. “Even my producers know it now,” she laughs. “They call me up and ask ‘do you have a bad throat’ and I say don’t worry I’ll manage to make it bad!”

So how have things changed since she first started? “I have grown up. I was 16 when I started and today I’m 27. I’ve learned and listened to several genres of music and worked with brilliant composers.” Shreya has been doing a bunch of songs in Bengali, Malyalam, Tamil and Kannada; and is “desperately looking forward to doing some independent and non-film music”. She adds, “I want to try all genres so that when I grow old I can proudly say, I’ve done it all!”