SANJEETA’S PURE LOVE FOR MUSIC

Here’s catching up with Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, as the Delhiite gears up for her second gig in the Capital

She felt drawn to music as a kid, and at the age of 21, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya (left) is already a popular name in the music circuit. From Jazz to RNB, the Delhi-based musician has performed at several gigs in the city, juggling genres. Sanjeeta — daughter of artist Sanjay Bhattacharya — however, believes that “it’s just the start”. “I was a kathak dancer in my school. Later, I went towards the other side of music, and [joined a] music school in America,” says Sanjeeta, who prefers not planning her life, as she believes that planning leads to disappointments. “I never planned on becoming a musician. It just happened. Going to Berkley (School of music) also wasn’t planned. Similarly, coming back from there wasn’t planned, and the same goes for these gigs,” she adds. Of late, the musician has ventured into Balkan music, and has formed a choral ensemble — Voicestra — along with other musicians Vikramaditya Negi, Aditi Malhotra and Kaushik Manikandan. The fourmember group might just be one-month-old, but they’ve been garnering rave reviews. “Our first gig was at a pub. You’d expect people to eat, drink and just go about their business, as a band keeps playing in the background. But when we started performing, all the eyes were on us. I don’t want to sound arrogant, and I am not lying, [other than us] there was pindrop silence. It was just awesome,” beams Sanjeeta. Proud of slowly growing as an artist, she is now gearing up for yet another group gig in the city on April 20 at The Piano Man Jazz Club. Ask her why she opted for forming a group, instead of trying to make it big individually, and the musician says: “Unless you don’t try something different, you don’t grow as an artist. And that’s important to me. I mean, if you want money then there is Bollywood and [there are] other avenues, and one can totally do that. I won’t say I am a saint and that I don’t want to earn money. I do want to, since I’ve taken up music professionally now. But for me, that’s not the only thing,” she says.