‘Today, female singers and their songs are disappearing from the scene’
The Bollywood music industry has always boasted of beautiful female voices in the form of legends such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kavita Krishnamurthy, and many others. But lately, a lot of industry insiders and music lovers have pointed out the lack of female singers and songs for them in Bollywood.
Singer Shilpa Rao, who made her debut with her unique voice in Bachana Ae Haseeno’s (2011) Khuda Jaane, says that she really “misses a good female album” in the industry today. “There is a situation today, where female singers and songs by female artistes are just disappearing from the scene. We have very beautiful female driven films, and I think, we need more female driven albums, too. Everyone keeps asking me why they don’t hear more songs from me in the mainstream, but this question can only be answered by the makers of the songs and albums,” says Rao, adding that this is a change that would be very welcome “because we have such great voices”.
Rao, who has been focusing more on her independent music career for a couple of years now, says that all her contemporary female singers are busy doing their own thing. “All the female singers are obviously making their own independent singles, like I have been singing ghazals for the last three-four years for no major return or anything, but just to satisfy myself and because it has been my upbringing. I am making a few singles as well, which are in the pipeline, and should be out this year. Neha Bhasin is doing her folk music, Shalmali [Kholgade] is doing her RnB music, so everyone is making their own stuff, and doing their own thing. But when people ask us where are the female voices, that’s not a question we can answer,” says Rao.
The Tose Naina Lage (Anwar; 207) singer adds that she is not asking for this change from a gender perspective, but from the point of view of talent capacity. “If you feel that yes, this female vocalist is doing justice to this film where the lead is a female, we should have a female voice sing for that film. When there is a conception of a film where the lead is a female, I would want to hear a female voice representing her attitude and personality and focus, so that is something that I would love to see. That is something that I am missing from the entire music scene. That is one change I would love to see. I just want to hear more beautiful voices irrespective of gender,” says Rao, clarifying that the problem doesn’t exist in the independent music scene where singers like Asees Kaur and Neha Kakkar are actively bringing out new singles.