Born to song: Gowry Lekshmi's musical journey

Her father owns a recording studio in Kerala, her mother runs a music institute; so Gowry Lekshmi's early inclination for music didn't come as surprise to anyone. After all, unlike other kids demanding a story before going to bed, Lekshmi would ask her parents to sing a song. When she was three, her mother took her to a music teacher to learn Carnatic music. "My first guru was SK Suma. Later I learned under Viakom Vasudevan Namboodiri, Maruthorvattom Unnikrishnan, Chengotta Harihara Subrahmanyam and Shyamala Venkataramani," says the 24-year-old who also went on to learn Hindustani and European classical.

In school, she would actively participate in competitions singing film songs, Carnatic music and reciting poems. Soon, she was writing her own songs inspired by nature, a tribute to her village in Alleppey, a region famous for its backwaters. "I started writing and composing at the age of 10. Initially, they were small poems. When I was 13, I wrote a love song Sakhiye, which was later chosen by director Rosshan Andrrews for his film Casanovva (2012) starring Mohanlal," recalls Lekshmi, who became India's youngest female composer with this song. "I would be asked to sing at every family get-together. At one of those gatherings, was Andrrews, who heard me singing Sakhiye and liked it so much that he used it in the movie," Lekshmi says.

Lekshmi then turned to playback singing, scoring another success with her beautiful rendition of Aaro Nenjil (2017), which she considers her biggest hit so far. Additionally, she is an independent music artist and has released more than 15 Malayalam compositions online. One of her songs, Thrinjum Marinjum, talks about her struggle with depression. "I never sit down to make a song... it comes after an incident or it's about a feeling. The tune comes first and lyrics is something that takes some effort and time," says Lekshmi. But while she has been composing since she was in school, she finds composing for films challenging even though they bring more accolades. "It requires more patience and compromises. As an indie artist you can go solo, express yourself the way you want," she says, adding that she is comfortable in Malayalam and will continue to write in her mother tongue.

Lekshmi is now crowdfunding one of her music videos, Aararo, on Wishberry as part of Watch Out, a project with Rolling Stone India, where the crowdfunding platform will help six artists raise money for their first big music video. But why would she, who has already released over a dozen videos, need crowdfunding? "Wishberry approached me two-three months ago. Initially, I had no idea about how exactly crowdfunding works as most of the independent work that I have done has been self-funded; my friends helped with one of them. Right now, as well, I am working on three songs. So, I couldn't afford to produce one more. If people out there who love my music can help me with this, that would be great." Why not reach out to producers? "Getting a producer from outside never worked for me. I have tried music labels as well but they too ended in disappointment. That's why I started self-funding," says Lekshmi, a clear advocate for indie music in India.