A spiritual connection to music

Kavita Paudwal, daughter of famous Bollywood playback singer Anuradha Paudwal, has rendered voice for hit songs like 'Haiyya', 'Mirch Masala', 'Julie I love you' amongst others. The singer recently performed in Hyderabad in an event 'Ek Shayam Bhagwan Mahavir Ke Nam'.

"This is my third visit to Hyderabad. Earlier I have come here with Anuradha ji for 'Matha ki Choki' and the same people have called me again. I love Hyderabad; however, I had never got a chance to explore it completely. I wish to spend more time here."

Kavita has a masters degree in interactive media from Tisch School of Arts New York University and about venturing into music industry she shares, "I started singing from my childhood, however, I did playback singing when I was 16 years old and in the first five years I got an opportunity to sing for renowned composers like AR Rehman, Anu Malik, etc. I wanted to study further so I went to the US to complete my studies; I did my masters there."

Kavita focuses more on Bhajan/spiritual songs. "Spiritual music and bhajan's is related to Vanaprasthashram (old age) which is not the case. I started singing bhajan's when I was 15; and I think in today's age, youngsters need spiritual music more than adults. As they are the ones who are completely scattered, and adults are busy sorting out their life. Basically, it is an area which is niche, as everybody wants to go into pop music, Bollywood, ghazals, etc and this is something which is rarely taken up. I had a very big advantage because of my last name as my mother did so much work in this field. And my entire family is into all sorts of devotional/spiritual music and it was stupid of me to run away from something that is a gift."

"But having said that of course mainstream music has its own charm," she adds.

About the re-mix bhajans she says, "I honestly I feel that it is very important to maintain the sanctity of the content, because a lot of it also depends on the visuals, so sometimes when you listen to a song there will not be much difference, but when you see the visuals you feel like 'what were they thinking', you feel that it is done to grab attention so it is going those kind of gimmicks it is a no thank you we will just stick to the traditional bhajan's."

Working with a lot of the legendary music artists she definitely seemed happy and excited when asked about her best experience with one of the artists. "Rehman, Rehman , Rehman … all the way, he was one of the first composers I sang with. I never expected when I was called from his office. I thought it was a prank call, because I was 16 and why would somebody say 'Can I speak to Kavita ji' as nobody called me 'ji' before and I thought somebody was pulling a prank on me. Then it turned out to be one of his assistant Murthy ji and he said that they have listened to one of my songs and they wanted to record something with me. I just could not believe it. Then I flew to Chennai. His style of working is that he works at night and does all the voice dubbings in the night and we generally sing early in the morning with fresh voice, but here it was different, and I was terrified as he was very popular."

Kavita has rendered her voice to a few Telugu songs too in the south. Speaking about her upcoming projects she says, "As much as I want to be a part of the ever so glamorous Bollywood, I am very happy with independent music as you get to be your own artist and you get to share your work. And I think I will be doing a lot of spiritual music as it's my genre and thanks to the internet now as it is beyond the old age. We have to understand one think, I cannot expect a 16 year to listen to bhajans 365 days, but for few festivals they listen, but it is wrong to say that nobody listens to it."