SHRUTI FINDS AVERSION TO INDIAN INDIE ENGLISH MUSIC, ‘STRANGE’
If the audience supports Indian English musicians more, streams more, goes to their gigs, it would make a huge difference. SHRUTI HAASAN, Actor-musician
Recently, musician Ananya Birla appealed to fans to give Indianmade English music a chance. Citing her own experiences, actor-musician Shruti Haasan, who released her first independent English song, The Edge, in 2020, finds it “baffling” that Indian English music is in dire straits.
On how she feels the subgenre is still a way off from reaching its potential audience in India, she says, “It’s much better than it was when I started out, but the legitimate Indian English music [scene] is not in a great place.”
Citing mainstream tracks such as Desi Girl, the 38-year-old states that while English lyrics in Hindi or other regional-language songs are received well, songs that are entirely in English don’t attract the same interest. “The number of
Hindi and Tamil songs that have English lyrics is huge and no one is questioning that. It’s cute when you mix it with something — I understand the value of regional independent music — but when it comes to an English song, I find an aversion, which I find strange.”
And the HER and Toxic singer has seen the difference first-hand. “I had a release called Monster Machine in English last year, and this year I had a release called Inimel, in Tamil. Both are in the independent music space but Inimel’s reach was higher,” she says, adding, “I can sing in many languages. I make English music because I am passionate about it. That is the language I can write in my songs. In my music, I try to very organically bring in the influences that make me who I am as an Indian English musician.”
Ask her about the obstacles that home-made English music face, and Shruti is quick to call out the bias. Having said that, she adds, “However, ultimately, the audience’s support truly drives that change. If the audience supports artistes more, streams more, goes to their gigs and supports live English music more, it would make a huge difference.”