Born in
Srinagar, Shashaa Tirupati was brought up in Vancouver, Canada, far away from India. However, the distance
never came in between her love for Indian music. After returning to India in
2010, Shashaa has been performing for various music directors including A R
Rahman, who has guided her to explore her potential as a singer. She recently
won the National Award 2018 for Best Female Singer for the Tamil song ‘Vaan
Varuvaan’ (Kaatru Veliyidai) with music director, A R Rahman and film director
Mani Ratnam. Her recent song includes ‘Mono Beena’ which she sang for the film
‘Gold’ starring Akshay Kumar and Mouni Roy.
Growing up in
Vancouver, Shashaa was influenced by the music her parents were listening to.
“It’s lucky to have parents who are deeply tied to their roots and they
listened to old Hindi classics from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. I think I am an
old soul and I feel attached to the old classics till the 60s. I feel blessed
to be listening to rich music when there would three verses in a song. My
parents always had exceptional taste in music and I get that from them,” says
Shashaa, who made her debut in Bollywood as playback singer in 2010 film ‘Bumm
Bumm Bole’.
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She sings in Hindi,
English, Konkani, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali,
Arabic and Japanese. Speaking about singing songs in Konkani, she says, “I was
approached for the single ‘Tunch Mhojem Jivit’ by Johnny D’Cunha and Milroy
Goes. I liked the song and I ended up singing it and then Milroy contacted me
for his feature film ‘Welcome M1ll10ns’ in which I have sung the title song. I
have guidance as the languages that I sing in are not necessarily the languages
I am fluent in. Whoever is there when recording are constantly correcting my
diction and how I am emoting and how certain words have to be stressed upon. I
have that support while singing.”
Singing is truly
appreciated when the emotions are expressed in the right form. For Shashaa, she
requires to understand the sentiments that the song is trying to convey. “I am
explained about the situation and the general vibe of the song. I am told about
lines where maybe specific emotions are required while I am recording or
understanding the lyrics. It is really important to understand the sentiment of
the song because music is about emotional expression,” she says. Shashaa is
fluent in English, Punjabi, Hindi, understands Bengali, reads and writes Urdu,
and gradually picking up a bit of Tamil.
She has been working
closely with A R Rahman in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. “With A R Rahman sir,
he comes up with an idea and in his mind he has a picture of what the song
should be like, treatment of the song, what the singer should deliver, what
kind of emotional requirements the song has and which singer he feels will suit
the requirement of the song. I consider myself very blessed and lucky to be
associated with someone of his stature and his understanding of music. He is a
rebel and has revolutionised the sound of Indian film music for the longest
time and to be a part of the movement is overwhelming. I still have shaky knees
when I see him and I will be shaking when I am in the studio for the first few
minutes and then I will slowly calm down and deliver. You don’t want to
disappoint him,” she explains. She will be next heard in ‘Robot 2.0’, where she
got a song ‘Mechanical Sundariye’ in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi for the Rajnikanth
starrer.
She further adds on
how he challenges her musically, “He is so incredibly inspiring because you
come to know your potential and capabilities and teaches you a lesson in the
long run. If you don’t push yourself, you will never end up unravelling your
potential and the genre and languages you may be capable of singing. You can
modulate and have a particular style of singing that you are comfortable and
how easily you can do justice to another genre of music. We generally tend to
play very safe in the language we sing in and it is very easy to be typecast in
the industry and he breaks it for you.”
Winning the National
Award 2018 for Best Female Singer is motivating her to hold on to the title by
singing with even more passion. “I think the song deserved every award and AR
Rahman and Mani Ratnam deserved it more than me. I was shocked, thankful and
nervous about how I am going to carry the weight of the award and outperform
what I have been doing till date. The award should only inspire, there should
be no other sentiment attached to it,” she says.
In
Goa, Shashaa is busy shooting music videos which recently included her tribute
to R D Burman which was shot on a two-wheeler. “I had come for a video shoot
and a few other things I have been working on simultaneously including my own
projects that I have shot for YouTube. Since its Goa, you tend to extend your
stay. It’s the perfect place to enjoy the rains. I am working on a lot of
independent projects, making my own songs and collaborations with different
artists of the country and abroad,” concludes Shashaa, who has been coming to
go for the last eight years and thoroughly enjoy riding in the rains.
