"I have come a
long way"

By Sagarika

"I have come a long way since I made the first professional recording at the age of five for a Hindi feature film, Shayad, opposite the great Indian singer Mohammad Rafi. The recording was done under the guidance of my father, the late Manas Mukherjee.

My training under Gautam Mukherjee and Pandit Pratap Narayan smoothened my rough edges. Oorja was my first Hindi film remix album. In Roop Inka Mastana album, I sang a couple of songs that brought me into the limelight.

My next album Naujawan became an overnight sensation in 1996 and established me and my brother, Shaan, as India’s first brother-sister pop duo. Famous music Director Biddu scored the music for Naujawan.

The release of Disco Deewane made me more popular and paved the way for my solo album. My latest album, Maa, launched by Magnasound India Ltd, is a personal gift for my Ma.Music for this album has been composed, arranged and directed by Suleiman and Salim Merchant.

The lyrics of Maa are very clean, fresh and all its songs are motivating and meaningful for me. I hope they will be so for everybody.

I will keep making music and would also like to continue travelling around the world. I think competition is going to get a lot tougher as more stress will be laid on quality.

Currently, the market is not well defined as everybody seems to be entering this profession. Even actors have shown an interest in singing.

I have always been open to entering the world of playback singing.

The future of Indian pop will be bright if there are more and more artistes who make the kind of music they truly believe in.

(As told to Dharam Pal)