In Bollywood, musically connected bhai-behen are rare to come by. Hridayanath and Lata Mangeshkar's outings seem like a lifetime ago while the Sonu-Teesha Nigam collaboration came too little, too late in life. Here's looking at some of the other siblings that have retained a musical connection over the years and are still sustaining it.
Shaan-Sagarika
The Mukherjee siblings began their pop career in 1996 together with Naujawan. With fame, followed solo careers. The non-film music scene, then known as IndiPop, steadily saw a decline. Shaan moved on to playback singing for Bollywood while Sagarika went into the restaurant business and began country-hopping. After years apart musically, they're coming together for a concert celebrating the works of the triumvirate of the golden era - Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi and Mukesh. We can tell you what Shaan's gifting his elder sister. It's a designer outfit by an Indian designer.
Anushka-Shikhar Mandhanda
Shikhar is lead guitarist for Reverss Polarity while Anushka has been a pop diva and Bollywood playback singer for years now. She says, "It's pretty amazing that Shikhar and I are on the same wavelength. We have our share of fights, but they come in a flash and go just as fast. We come from different musical backgrounds, but there is a space where we can connect. We're experimenting with a sound together now and we're super excited about it! Since we're in New York together for a few months his gift to me for rakhi will be that he will do the dishes while we're there. She adds, "Well, we are together only at the moment. We are both taking different courses here, but we have already started working on some music. In Mumbai, we were working together more often. Here, between classes and homework and all that is New York, there is not so much time. But the plan is to maximise our time here and come back to Mumbai and start working."
Aditi Singh Sharma-Kreuger Singh
Aditi has kept quite busy in Bollywood. She started out in playback with Dev.D and most lately, did Offo from 2 States and Blame The Night from Holiday. Her elder brother Kreuger, is not known in Bollywood simply because he prefers to work in Canada. As an interdisciplinary music producer, he is one of the key founders of Dubslingers, Toronto's original dubstep collective. And although he has no officially released material, Kreuger has a long history of Live P.A. and DJ performances all across Canada over the last decade. Says Aditi, "We collaborated on something once way back. I sang his song at his event in Toronto and opened for the Midival Punditz. His daughter, Kilaya passed away last year, aged three and for her first birth anniversary, I recorded her fav song Kehdo Na You Are My Soniya, here in Mumbai. And he's still working on it. It's probably his most difficult production of his life. On Rakhi, we usually get on Skype and talk nonsense and laugh. He is an amazing cook, so we always discuss music and food. For rakhi, my bro flew down to edmonton to surprise me and will watch my gig tonight."
Palak-Palash Muchhal
She's three years older. And yet, the two are inseparable, musically. Palak is known for being part of charity concerts that benefit heart patients since a very young age and Palash calls her his inspiration. She began her Bollywood innings as a singer with Damadamm, starting her non film music career much earlier. He did it with Dishkiyaaoon as a composer. They insist it's all professional inside the recording studio, but that they're like any brother or sister, otherwise. Her last hit was Kick's Jumme Ki Raat. His last release, Amit Sahni Ki List. What is he getting her? Palak says she doesn't know, but she's "getting him some gadget as he's a gadget freak."
Aditya-Kavita Paudwal
Children of late musician Arun Paudwal and playback singer Anuradha Paudwal, Aditya and Kavita were always connected to music. "My earliest memory is Aditya composing for a movie at all of right years just because he scored music for my dad's incomplete films after his demise. The brat entered the Limca Book of Records as the youngest music composer," says Kavita, adding, "Then he composed these fabulous songs for me called Tere pyaar mein and Tarse .. they were very Rahmanesque and my nicest renditions to date and he also a kickass chamber music solo recital that he composed and I sang in New York." What is he gifting her? A family trip abroad.
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