Serenity and melody with Lothika Jha
Aknown name in the Indie space, Lothika Jha completely lit the Bollywood space with her deep, husky and sexy vocals. If it wasn;t for her voice, the chemistry between Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi in Gehraiyaan would have been just another steamy movie sequence. Gehraiyaan is a Hindi adaptation of the song, Frontline by the same artistes and the singer brings serenity to the emotionally complex story. As the independent artiste carves her niche, we spoke to her about everything above and under the music-making.
How did you bag the movie?
Karan Kapoor, who is one of the assistant directors on the film, was also looking after the marketing work. In the initial draft of the film, he had placed Frontline, a song that OAFF and I had written about three years ago. Shakun (Batra) liked how it fit the teaser and the vibe of the film. That is how Gehraiyaan, the title track came about. I think it was a lucky serendipitous falling together of moments. All the right people came and made this happen and I had the incredible fortune to land up as well.
Who is Lothika? Tell us a bit more about yourself...
I am is a film student from Bangalore who works as a director’s assistant and assistant director. I have been singing since I was four years old, but I never actually thought of pursuing it professionally. I always had a dream that one day I will get to do it, but I never actually tried to pursue it as such. Music has been an extremely emotional mode of expression for me and been very private all these years. I would prefer to sing in a chai ka tapri or at the school of architecture, jamming with the students and they would do their thing. I am also a spiritualist and I also work with healing. I am also an artiste and a writer, so there is a lot of things to Lothika.
Independent music has always been there in India. We have always had a very steady growth... We are standing at the precipice of a new era in music. We are at a point where we are testing our audiences and pushing their limits and they are accepting that and enjoying it.
How do you think indie music is evolving in India? Do you think it would ever get the mainstream response in the future?
Independent music has always been there in India. We have always had a very steady growth. Like Ankur Tewari said in a previous interview, collaborations between Bollywood and independent music are not uncommon. I feel like with regards to a particular film and this one, the response that people are giving is something that sets the tone for the future that it is going to be an incredible collaboration if we choose to put our feet in it. We are standing at the precipice of a new era in music. We are at a point where we are testing our audiences and pushing their limits and we are seeing that they are accepting that and enjoying it. If anything, they celebrate it this way. I hope more filmmakers reach out to small independent artistes. We have an incredible plethora of independent musicians in India who are just so good. In this film, the same intricacies that we are used to, they have brought out interestingly with this kind of music. I feel it will be a very interesting next few years for these collaborations to happen.
What’s your future project?
I have a few projects in the pipeline. As soon as I can confirm anything I will make announcements. Hopefully, by the end of this year my audiences will also see an EP from me.