MUMBAI: With some of the most popular songs from last year like ‘India Waale’ from the film ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Tune Maari Entriyaan’ from ‘Gunday’ and the title track of ‘Bang Bang’, Neeti Mohan is currently basking in her success of 2014. Now, her next awaited project includes the six songs she has crooned in the upcoming film ‘Bombay Velvet’, which stars Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar and Anushka Sharma. The music for the film is composed by Amit Trivedi and lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.
“Considering the fact that the kind of music Amit Trivedi makes, every singer in the country wishes to work with him. For me it was like a dream come true,” exalted Mohan. The ‘Queen’ composer got in touch with her in 2013 for ‘Bombay Velvet’, and when she reached the office he asked her if she was acquainted with Jazz. “I thought it was for singing one song in a movie, and said that while I have heard of the genre, I do not know much about it,” she revealed.
Trivedi later told her that she would be singing for ‘Bombay Velvet’, and the film is set in the 1960s where Anushka Sharma plays the role of a singer at a club. Mohan revealed that at the time, Trivedi explained that the club only catered to the higher class and that Rosie Noronha (Sharma’s character) was a famous singer. “Since the story was set in that period, I had to bring a retro style to my singing, which was something I had not done before,” explained Mohan. For two to three months, she detached herself from Bollywood music and went to different places to watch Jazz singers perform.
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“While recording the songs, I had to dress up in retro clothes just to get the feel of the music and get into the character. The specialty of these singers is that they look you in the eyes and sing, which is what I observed and implemented in my learning. Our studio was turned into a room that was similar to the stage on which Rosie performs and Amit, Anurag (Kashyap) and Amitabh (Bhattacharya) would sit at a round table and I would look at them and sing,” she added.
Mohan stated that working on ‘Bombay Velvet’ helped her learn a new genre of music, which in turn has helped her grow as an artist. When asked if she thought she would become a playback singer after winning the reality show, ‘Music Ka Maha Muqqabla’ in 2009, she said, “I always thought that I have a better on stage presence, but then with time I realised that playback singing was also something I should do.”
Mohan recently bagged the GiMA Award for ‘Best Duet’ for the song ‘Bang Bang’ and the ‘Newsmakers Achievers Award 2015’.
