Madhubanti Bagchi looks back at her Heeramandi song and reveals what her next song will be!

Many people don’t know this beforehand HeeramandiI had made an album with Sanjay Leela Bhansali called Sukoonwhich should be released sometime in early 2023. So the planning went on for several years, about four to five years.

After Sukoon was released, he started working on something really big, a project called Heeramandi. And all of us who knew about this project secretly hoped that we would somehow be a part of it. But of course, I also knew that it would not be possible. To my surprise, his team called a meeting. He is still old-fashioned in that respect. To select the singers following the classical pattern, composers would make the singers sit down and sing all the songs just to check which voice suits whom. Bhansali sir follows the same pattern. He wanted to find out which singer would sing which song. I found his method very unique because nowadays I don’t find any other composer who does that.

Firstly, I had no interest in becoming a singer. Secondly, when I started giving importance to the profession and pursuing it, I thought that if I had to sing, I would work in Calcutta for three or four years.

Personally, I didn’t like the way of working in Kolkata. I’m an introvert. I don’t like going out every day. If I don’t have work, I don’t go anywhere. That’s just my personality. I prefer to stay at home and just do my thing. And I felt that the entertainment industry is a field that I think is a little more extroverted. If you’re a good talker, if you’re good with other people and all those things, then it makes things a little easier.

But that’s just a small reason. I wanted to explore a bigger industry and a bigger horizon. Whether it’s Bollywood or something else. But generally, there are so many films in Mumbai other than Bollywood. There are so many international artists, so many collaborations, so many independent films.

I feel that in Calcutta it is a very one-dimensional business. Those who do it will do it for years. It takes a lot of time to bring about change.

We can’t talk about upcoming projects. Because nobody knows what will be released in the end. Also, I’m working on my own EP, so I’ve done something that people might not expect from me. It’s not a classical track, but more folk and electronica, and it’s all my own compositions, freshly written and composed. And there will be a lot of interesting collaborations too. It should be out sometime in November this year.

How can you analyze something if it’s good or bad if you’re not credible enough? I was told for so many years that my voice isn’t suitable for playback singing. And believe me, I know that today I have an advantage because of my voice, because of my tonality. At one point I even saw people changing my vocal pitch. There are some technologies that can change the tone to a certain extent. It was all very disheartening. I felt that my natural voice couldn’t be used for singing. Then I realized that there were only two options… Either I give in and accept that my voice can’t be used for a normal commercial song. Or I have to use it or resort to something else. Maybe I’m not made for it. And that’s exactly what worked.

When I sang the Coke Studio song, nobody told me to sing in a light voice. Or in a deep voice. Shayan Chowdhury Arnob said to just do what I thought was best, whatever you should do with the song, and then do it. And look how it worked. It worked so perfectly.

There are many problems that a person creates as an artist anyway. If an artist does not have self-doubt, he can never develop. But in addition to that, there are external discouraging factors.