Shilpa Rao talks about singing the second one in films, and including it in live set, too
After reprising Farida Khanum’s Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM) in 2016, Shilpa Rao has sung another ghazal — Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s Dasht-e-Tanhai, composed by Mehdi Zaheer and sung by Iqbal Bano. “Pritam finds a way to do this to me. I don’t know how he gets these ideas,” Shilpa laughs while talking about the nazm in the Emraan Hashmi-starrer Tigers, which recently premiered on Zee5. She informs us that this was the first ghazal she sang for a movie, though it released after ADHM. Was she apprehensive about how the recreation of a classic would be received? “I don’t overthink, especially when singing; I just have fun. It’s important to convey the emotion to listeners. If you’ve done that, you have done your job,” says the Tose Naina (Anwar, 2007) crooner. She reminds us that Manmarziyan from Lootera (2013) was sung like one, too. “I didn’t choose to do it but it came out like that,” says she.
Ghazals are first love for Shilpa, whose dad would play them regularly while she was growing up. For the last one year, she has been performing baithaks alongside singing Bollywood tracks like Bulleya (ADHM), Malang (Dhoom 3, 2013), etc. “It’s fun doing both simultaneously,” she avers.
As for playback singing, one can look forward to compositions by Vishal-Shekhar and Pritam that she has lent her voice to. “I wouldn’t know what they are for but they will be out in 2019,” she says, adding that it takes patience and being in the business for many years to reach a point when one calmly waits for a song to see the light of the day. “I’ve been through the stage when I was obsessed about whether a trackwould work or not. Now, I know that if it’s delayed, it’s still releasing at the right time,” she states. Shilpa has completed a decade in the industry and emphasises, “I practise and listen to music a lot more now. There have been times when I have felt, this is it. I’m done. But one song comes out and you feel you still have more to say through your numbers,” she concludes.
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 "A still from Tigers; and (right) Shilpa Rao")
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