NIKITA GANDHI

Music room

“Somehow I broke all the rules and that’s what AR Rahman seemed to like about my audition." -– Nikhita Gandhi

Who can forget the hauntingly soulful sung Raabta or the quirky Ullu Ka Pathha from Jagga Jasoos? Well, they were sung by the very vivacious and the talented Nikhita Gandhi who tells Sumita Chakraborty in her amazingly entertaining way how she forayed into the music world and made it her own.

Nikhita, I believe you are half Bengali, half Punjabi and you were brought up in Kolkata and then relocated to Chennai, so you are a potpourri of wonderful cultures… has this shaped your music?

“Potpourri of wonderful cultures”… I love that! Well yes, my journey and where all it’s taken me has most definitely shaped my music and my personality too. I actually coined a word for my mixed background when I was little – I’d call myself a “Benjabi”.

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I was born and raised in Calcutta. Both my parents are dental surgeons and so I grew up in a nuclear family with two very hardworking role models. My parents always encouraged me to learn dance and music. Thus began several years of Odissi and Hindustani Classical Music, and the jugal bandi of the two really melted into each other like one amazing new flavour of ice cream. Dental school in Chennai was the second chapter in my life but I needed an outlet and that’s how KM Music Conservatory happened. I enrolled in a part-time course there and started going for western vocal classes once a week. Hanging out with other musicians and artistic people really helped me breathe again and I started enjoying all of it. My first professional singing experience, however, was in 2012 when I was in a choir that toured with A.R.Rahman on a five city concert called “Classic Incantations” with the German Film Orchestra. It was magical, 100+ people on stage performing some of his most iconic scores. I even met Oprah because of it. Rahman Sir really liked my texture and then started calling me for recordings and scratches for film BGM work. You know that scene in Jab Tak Hai Jaan when Shah Rukh Khan had this filmy moment with

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Katrina Kaif and was also diffusing a bomb, that voice in the background was mine. All of this led to my first big solo on a song called “Ladio” from the film I by Shankar. That was the most challenging recording of my life. Picture this - a studio control room with A.R.Rahman, Madhan Karky and the director Shankar himself, staring at this new singer, making her sing in a language she can barely speak in on a ridiculously high pitched track. It was crazy. But it was also the beginning of my professional singing career. That led to working with Anirudh and then Harris Jayaraj and subsequently, my Bollywood debut Raabta.

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You worked with two of the biggest talents - AR Rahman and Shekhar Kapoor at a very young age, could you tell us about that?

Rahman Sir and Shekhar Kapoor had launched a new venture called Qyuki. It was supposed to be the Facebook for artists. For the launch of their website, they were going to release a few music videos with fresh voices from Rahman Sir’s school. Of course, I knew none of this. All I knew at the time was the choir was holding some auditions and they were recording videos of the audition to show it to some anonymous somebody. I could not make it to the tryouts because it was on a Sunday and I had my university finals from the next day. I asked them if I could just take a video from my laptop and send it to them and they agreed. The brief was to sing a Celtic Classical piece. So I just took my guitar and sang Scarborough Fair in my sultry cracked voice. Somehow I broke all the rules and that’s what AR seemed to like about my audition. That’s actually the story behind how I got on board with this project and technically, how my music career also began!

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How did you come to Mumbai and kickstart your career here?

After my studies were over in Chennai, I stuck around there for a bit working part-time at a clinic and also singing for films there and doing shows. One of the closest people from my life in Chennai, Shashwat Singh was moving to Bombay too, so I came in a train with him to help him set up. Shashwat had already had a break in Bollywood with the song Wat Wat from Tamasha so he moved here to pursue his career. While helping him settle in, I sang a few scratches for Pritam da and a couple of other composers. Then on one of my scratch sessions at Dada’s studio, they handed me a lyric sheet of the new Raabta and said they wanted to try out my voice. I went into that vocal booth with no expectations at all. So I sang it and went back. When the trailer of Raabta released, my voice was in it. I still remember that day clearly. I was sitting in Raghu Dixit’s studio in Bangalore recording Tan Tan (which later on released in Chef) and then he played the trailer of Raabta on his huge monitors for me. It was such an uplifting moment. I told him that the song is still not final in my voice and he laughed and said, “I thought I would be the one to launch you in Bollywood!” A week or so later, Pritam da called me himself and said that I need to come back to Bombay and stick around till the song releases, because they need to re-dub me with the lyric changed etc. So I came back to Mumbai, did a few more sessions till they were completely happy with the song. That’s when I said to myself - I guess it’s time to live in Mumbai now!

Raabta and Ullu Ka Patha got you a lot of accolades, how did you get these breaks?

Raabta and Ullu Ka Pattha were recorded around the same time. Jagga Jasoos was on at full swing at the studio at the time, and so I think all of us were living and breathing it. It’s funny, a couple of weeks after Raabta, the producer Sunny M.R. called me and said, “Congrats on our new track!” I was perplexed and was like, “Raabta released more than two weeks back! We already celebrated together!” Then he chuckled and messaged me the link of Ullu Ka Pattha. I think that’s when it became real for me. All this while I thought it was just a fluke that I was going to sing Raabta. Jagga Jasoos was a very special project for me. I really want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate every engineer and musician who was a part of it. There were about 30 songs in the musical and I had sung a lot of them. One of the most joyous recordings was Aflatoon the theme song of Jagga in which I really just got to be my quirky self and sing the way I naturally do. One of the most therapeutic and cherished recordings of my life was also at Pritam da’s studio for the song Ghar from the film Jab Harry Met Sejal.

Tell us about your single “Jhalle Kalle”.

Jhalle Kalle is a song that I composed with a friend of mine, Denny. He and I met at a gig in Perth, Australia where I was doing a set and he was DJ-ing). We exchanged numbers and got in touch once he moved here, to dub me on a film song. We became good friends and started writing fresh music together. JK was the second song we created together. We got Siddhant Kaushal on board to pen down some awesome lyrics and then started pitching it to various labels here in Bombay. JioSaavn’s Artist Originals came through and we signed the song with them. As soon as everything started falling into place, the lockdown happened and then we all broke into a dilemma - how do we release it? I wanted Jhalle Kalle to be an escape, an indulgence, and most significantly - timeless. Instead of approaching a production house, I decided why not invest on our own people. I put together a team, Shashwat Singh (the playback singer who has also directed some of my music videos in the past), Manas Tiwari who is a fabulous DOP with a lot of movie experience and Shubham Mandhyan who is a dear friend and a killer photographer. An actor friend of ours, Abhijeet came on board as I felt that he fit the bit to be the guy cast opposite yours truly. And slowly we put together our vision and shot the song at a friend’s house. I really enjoyed the entire process and once JK released, the response has been explosive. People have really resonated with the song and connected instantly.

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Any memorable anecdote in your musical journey that you would like to share withus?

When the film Manmarziyaan released, it was the first time that the album was being launched with a tour. So all of us singers were travelling with Amit Trivedi and the cast to promote the film through concerts. It was an incredibly cool experience. The first performance was here in Bombay at Meethibai College. When my song Dhayanchand started and I started performing my rap section , Vicky Kaushal randomly ran onto the stage and started dancing with me. The crowd went crazy and if there was a way to describe that moment in words, I would. Vicky and I started doing that bit in every city, that sort of became our signature “thing” on stage where he and I go crazy dancing to Dhyayanchand.

What about the digital platform – do you plan to straddle this platform along with films?

Oh yes! I’ve already begun straddling. Apart from the work I’ve done in film, I’ve sung for a few OTT projects as well. Some notable stuff would be the theme song of Imtiaz Ali’s recent web series She composed by a dear friend Ishaan Chhabra, and the song “Yellow Wali Beetle” from Zoom Studio’s series Happily Ever After in which I also appeared in the music video. Another show, I am extremely thrilled about is an upcoming project of Akarsh Khurana called Mismatched which is going to be a Netflix Original Series. It’s also going to be my music directorial debut as I’ve scored the music for some of it and lent an original track too. With the advent of the pandemic, in the first 21 days of lockdown I did a series called #21DaysOfLove where I released a cover or video every single day on Instagram and YouTube.

I then started releasing independent music. There was this single Kamli with Bharat Goel that gained a lot of popularity. I released an English single called Recreational Love which was entirely written and produced during the lockdown. I really want to mention a big one - and that’s a kickass track composed by the legends Salim-Sulaiman called Beech Raaste released by Merchant Records, their own label. I got to share that track with Armaan Malik. The whole video was shot on the memoji feature of the iPhone and it was probably the quickest shoot I’ve ever been a part of.

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You were the voice of faces like Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif, which actors in Bollywood would you want to playback for?

I think I’ve ticked a lot of boxes already with this one! I’ve sung for the biggest and most gorgeous women of Bollywood which is really cool. There’s one more box I’d really like to tick and that’s Priyanka Chopra. More than anything it’s because we share a commonality of very husky voices, so objectively speaking. I feel lending my voice to a song that is pictured on her would be undeniably authentic.

Actors have started singing too, what do you think of this?

Actors who have the skill and have pretty voices should absolutely pursue their singing career too. We live in a multi-faceted world where almost every individual has more than one job title. As an artist especially, it’s important to explore your artistry in all forms. I myself started first with dance and then music. I recently collaborated on a music video with Shashwat Singh and Rishabh Shankar where I appear as a dancer. So I genuinely think we should keep reinventing and applying ourselves as artists. I can’t wait to try acting as well. I’ve acted in a few music videos already, but I surely want to explore the visual arts a lot more.

Do you think you have got your due in the industry?

I don’t think anyone owes anyone automatically. We earn our place in the world with hard work and dedication. I consider myself very blessed to have come even this far, and to be given the kind of opportunities I have been given.

Sonu Nigam opened a can of worms when he spoke about “music mafias” who try to own a singer, what do you think of this?

Sonu ji is someone who has seen way more in this industry than I can even fathom. I am merely a foetus in comparison. So whatever he has spoken about must have a lot of truth and reality in it. If I had to throw an opinion out there, I truly feel the issue lies in the core of it all, and that’s the fact that we work in an unorganised sector. Like the roads of Bombay, I suppose the industry is full of potholes and makes you wonder “how do we travel through it smoothly?”. I think being self aware and educating oneself is very important, no matter what industry you belong to. Nobody is going to give you a handbook or manual of how to work the music industry. So know your rights. Don’t at any point compromise your self worth and talent. So building self discipline and self-controlled routines is essential. I myself have not really cracked that so well. Whatever it is, if you are a part of this industry, just remember we have all cried, been miserable and had pointless days. …Don’t let any of that define you or your choices.

What are your upcoming projects

There are of course a lot of film songs that are in the pipeline, one massive song from Sooryavanshi is one that I’m aware of! Another really exciting track that’s coming out is a live studio version of Siddhant Bhosle’s Din Aur Raatein. So I guess a lot of collaborations, both in film and in non-film. And then there’s of course the super premature acting career which has not even begun.