VELVET VOICES

They don’t always dance to the tunes of others; sometimes they make their own. Meet Bollywood’s new songstresses

The new singing stars of Bombay film industry are redefining music and getting their due on their own terms

ONFEBRUARY 4, 2016, a 15-year-old aspiring singer uploaded a video on YouTube. There’s no burkha but there’s a guitar which she gently strums to sing Rihanna’s “Stay”. Instead of the angst of Secret Superstar Insiya, there’s tenderness. The video didn’t go viral (66,000 views and counting), but it caught the attention of someone who mattered. Two months later, the teenager found herself sitting in composer Amit Trivedi’s studio in Mumbai and signing a contract for a production she did not know was Aamir Khan’s. A secret superstar was born—Meghna Mishra. “I filled a form without really reading it,” she says. “Only later did I realise that I was getting my big break in an Aamir Khan production.”

True talent speaks volumes and it doesn’t always need a reality TV show to be heard and validated. For every Shreya Ghoshal (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) and Arijit Singh (Fame Gurukul) who first struck their impressionable notes on the small screen, there’s a Meghna who fell short in the Indian Idol Jr auditions. Hailing from a family of musicians in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, and trained by her father Sanjay Kumar Mishra in Mumbai, Meghna today thanks her stars that she didn’t make it far in the reality show. “Among the many who auditioned for the film were winners of reality shows,” says the now 16-year-old. “It is sad that despite being winners, they had to audition. What’s the point of winning the show?”

From having sung two songs for a Marathi film, Vitti Dandu (2014), to singing one of the most popular Hindi tracks of 2017, “Main Kaun Hoon”, Meghna is overwhelmed with all the appreciation she has garnered. Her parents are still her managers and she intends to retain the “simplicity and purity” Trivedi and Khan praised her for. Currently pursuing arts at Witty International School, Mumbai, Mishra is following Insiya’s example in lending her voice to meaningful songs. “Before the film, I wasn’t that confident,” she says. “More people know me now, including Aamir sir.”