“The struggle is always there for every musician to start work in Bollywood, it takes years, it takes months…” – Shilpa Rao

Her voice is her identity. Indeed, Shilpa Rao is a singer par excellence who has shown her versatility and power through her various hit songs in so many blockbusters. But she hasn’t limited herself only to Bollywood, in a candid conversation with Sumita Chakraborty, Shilpa Rao talks about her journey in the music industry and more.

- Sumita Chakraborty

Known for her stupendous mastery over Indian classical ragas, the Grammy-nominated singer Shilpa Rao embarked on her musical journey through Bollywood and Hindustani classical music. With more than 25 songs under her belt in various genres and styles, singer Shilpa Rao is the voice behind some of famous iconic gems as Javeda Zindagi (Anwar, 2007), Ek Lau (Aamir, 2008), Khuda Jaane (Bachna Ae Haseeno, 2008), Subhanallah (Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani 2013), Manmarziyan (Lootera, 2013), Bulleya (AeDil Ae Mushkil 2016), Kalank title track (Kalank 2019) and the mega chartbuster Ghungroo (War movie 2019), Haan Tum Ho (Love Aaj Kal 2020) and many more. Shilpa’s work as a playback singer is not limited to film soundtracks. She has collaborated with talented musicians across genres from Karsh Kale, Agni, Noori and Anoushka Shankar, the Yellow Diaries, Amit Trivedi, etc along with being the only Indian to perform at Pakistan coke studio and at Glastonbury Festival in 2015. Indeed, she’s a singer par excellence. Read on to know more about Shilpa Rao.

Shilpa, from Hindi classical music to Bollywood, you have been exposed to a potpourri of wonderful music… How much has your musical journey been impacted by this?

I didn’t think I would become a singer. I didn’t want to do much because that was never in my plan. Though I have been learning music since a young age but I never had any aspirations or ambitions. I think now when I look back, it was better just to focus on music than anything else. I learnt music without any expectations. I think in a way it was really a good childhood where I was learning music for it’s pure love and nothing else.