When Bollywood needs me, they know my contact number
Raja Kumari’s tryst with the Hindi music industry has been limited, but she has managed to make a name for herself. The songs Freaking Life in the movie Mom (2017) and Allah Duhai in Race 3 (2018) are two examples that showcase Kumari’s unique touch to Bollywood numbers. “The last Hindi song I did was for (singer) Arijit Singh in Pagglait (2021), who had composed the music. But it was elevated Hindi for me. I was born in America. English is my primary language,” she shares.
However, the rapper-singer asserts that she doesn’t consciously chase Hindi projects; in fact, it is the other way around. “Bollywood stories are always appealing. But singing in Hindi is not something I go after; it (projects) always comes to me. I did Husn Parcham for Shah Rukh Khan in Zero (2018), then Wakhra Swag in Judgementall Hai Kya (2019). I know that when Bollywood needs me, they know my contact number,” laughs Kumari, who recently released Made in India, sampling the original popular single sung by Alisha Chinai. “I live in a generation and a time when great songs are being brought back. I worked with a sample, reenvisioned it. It was not a cover. The production happened at my home in Los Angeles, US. I spent months acquiring it from the original label. I put time into it. And this song was like once a hit, always a hit. The greatest tongue-incheek moment was telling people that even though for some [in India] I was an outsider, America thinks I am an Indian and I am not given accolades,” she concludes.