Vocalist Zila Khan talks about her ties with Mumbai and pulls her Sufi strings for a special Women's Day album.
Vocalist Zila Khan talks about her ties with Mumbai and pulls her Sufi strings for a special Women's Day album
She drifts off into her own little world often in the midst of a conversation. But conversely the weight of the musical lineage that she traces strongly reflects in her fiery talk too.
Daughter of Ustad Vilayat Khan, vocalist Zila Khan, has formed her own niche and secured a fine following for the form of music she follows. She might be jamming with Louiz Banks at the Jazz Utsav or even singing an item number for
Bollywood but she has surrendered her soul to Sufi style of singing.
Zila is coming out with a special album Zila-The Girl Child which is her offering to all women on this year’s Women’s Day. The album features women poetesses, the highlight being Hazrat Rabia-al-Basri.
“I conceptualised the album knowing the emotions of a girl child, the struggle and the success. There’s sensuousness, romance and everything that a woman goes through. I felt blessed that I was the chosen one to use Rabia’s poetry which no one to date has used,” she said.
For Zila growing up studying music under her dad’s tutelage, managing his work and then finding her own path was a natural progression.
“I would spend about 12 hours every day with my father studying and discussing music. He was close to all his kids but I was the one who was handling his work. He ended up spending more time with me. He taught me a lot about life,” she reminisces.
The musician meets up with her friends while in Mumbai. She has a wide circle of people she considers family including Dilip Kumar, Dimple Kapadia, Zakir Hussain and Jackie Shroff.
They all know me since my childhood days and still treat me like a kid. The one thing I really like about Mumbai is the fact that the city understands the aesthetic of any kind of art very well,” she explains adding that this emerges from the cosmopolitan nature of the city that’s home to various cultures.
Currently based in Muscat, Zila lives it up with her husband and son balancing her art at the same time.
Zila is now looking forward to a Hollywood project.
“I was approached by Warner Brothers but can’t really talk about it. I also have a couple of Bollywood projects lined-up,” she signed off.
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