Sunidhi Chauhan may be about to start a new and precious chapter in her life as a mother, but that didn’t stop the playback singer in giving her all to a reality show on remixes. As a judge for The Remix, Sunidhi shrugs off all prejudices against rehashing songs, and explains that they can work, but only if they’re well made.
“What most people do, when it comes to remixes, is that they just add a dancey beat with the original song and pass it off as their take. What the participants have done on this show, and what makes for a good remix, is recreated the song, made it completely their own, while still managing to hold onto the same emotions as the original. Just hard-hitting dance beats are not enough,” she elaborates.
It was with a reality show — Meri Awaaz Suno — that Sunidhi herself came into the limelight, while still in her early teens. However, the singer believes that it takes more than a reality show to make your career. “There a lot of platforms for singers, especially now. But ultimately, one needs to keep ones focus after the show’s over. While reality shows definitely act as platforms for young aspirants, they’re not the be all and end all,” she explains.
Though she herself managed to establish a niche for herself as one of the top singers of Bollywood, Sunidhi confesses that she doesn’t take any form of formal training. But this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t practice. “I’m always singing to myself, whether it’s in the car, while I’m heading to a studio, or while I’m doing household chores. One of my most favourite places to sing is the washroom of my mother’s home, because it’s a bog room and the echoes are great,” she laughs.
Once known as the ‘queen of item songs’, some of Sunidhi’s most popular songs have been Beedi Jalaile, Sheila Ki Jawaani, Desi Girl and the like. However, the playback singer believes that she has long left the stereotype behind. “The songs that I sang in Neerja, for instance, are completely different from item songs. I don’t think that music directors think of me as someone who is only able to do a limited number of songs anymore. People now associate me with all kinds of songs,” she asserts.
Though she has come a long way from her beginnings, it is one of the songs that she had sung towards the beginning of her career that the singer recalls nostalgically. “I remember singing Dil Mein Jaagi Dhadkan for M. M. Keeravani in the film Sur which released in 2002. He asked me to sing 12 lines of the song in one breath. That was quite a challenge. I have utmost respect for all the music directors that I have worked with. But some of my most memorable collaborations have been with Anand Raj Anand. He made me sing songs that automatically brings a smile to one’s face,” she signs off.
