Mumbai: Three decades in, singer Sunidhi Chauhan is having the biggest moment of her career. Her concerts now sell out in arenas across India, and clips from her shows routinely go viral online within hours of being posted.
In an exclusive conversation with ThePrint, the singer reflected on why this scale of recognition has arrived now.
“I have always been this free, this happy, this liberated on stage from the time I started singing on stage. As for the recent success, I didn’t intend to make my fans wait, but as they say, ‘It’s never too late’,” Chauhan said, addressing the spectacles her concerts have become in recent years. But the singer argued that she has remained the same; what has changed, in her view, is the ecosystem around her.
“Over the past 10 years, the shows have turned into something else. Social media has been so strong in the last decade that if you perform in the smallest region, people come to know about it. So it’s just that people get to see me more because of social media. Nothing has gone unnoticed,” she said.
A self-issued dare
But long before sold-out stadiums and social media fame, there was a little girl who treated singing as a hobby. Chauhan recalls how her parents would ask her to sing when guests visited them.
“My sister and I, we both would sing or dance as it happens in homes,” Chauhan said.
However, it was at her first recording session, at age 11, when Chauhan decided to pursue a career in music.
“When I started singing in the movies, I was 11. So you can imagine, other than just enjoying the whole idea of singing on the mic and for movies, there was nothing else on my mind. And I was not thinking about the present or future. I was too engrossed in enjoying the feeling of singing on the mic,” she recalled.
Chauhan described the feeling of being able to sing as very “satisfying” and took her early career as a self-issued dare.
“Singing is a different kind of fun. It gives me a different kind of perspective. It’s difficult. And I love doing difficult things. I used to love singing the most difficult songs even in school. It started as a challenge. Doing this on the mic is not easy, but I love it. So, I am going to continue doing it,” the singer added.
When asked whether she ever considered the weight of representing a new female voice in the industry, Chauhan is blunt: “At that time, I had no idea. I was just a child.”
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The charm of a crowded recording session
In the years since Chauhan’s debut, the music industry has changed drastically. But she doesn’t think of it as anything dramatic. The singer says that she simply misses the “packed recording studios.”
“Earlier people would gather, and when we would go to record songs, it wasn’t just me in the studio. There would be, along with the music director, the lyricist, the producer, director, maybe their family, maybe more people who are related to the film,” she recalled.
At the time, she admits, it felt like overkill. But she misses it now. One particular era, from her personal journey, is when she used to “record with Vishal-Shekhar.”
“We would meet, we used to sing, but before that we used to just have fun for three to four hours, we would just chat and just talk and then get on the mic and do the song. So that experience, the one in the middle of my career, was beautiful,” she shared.
Today’s process, Chauhan said, is leaner, faster, and lonelier, even if she has found her own kind of freedom inside that solitude.
“Now you don’t see people; you are more on your own. Even people who get in touch with you to get you to sing, they want to leave it to you, ‘Aap jaisa chaho, aap aisa kar do.’ Of course they have a vision, but it’s not a very peculiar kind of vision. They give me a gist of the whole idea, and I take it from there,” she added.
Advice for the next generation
If there’s one thing Chauhan refuses to do, it’s play the wizened elder handing down wisdom to newer singers.
“I don’t think today’s singers need any kind of advice. They are already very prepared. They are exposed to a lot more than we were exposed to. The whole music is right in front of you because of the social media and all the apps and everything. The whole world is in your hands right now,” she said.
Her read on the current landscape is that it’s an industry with room for everyone, if one is willing to stop chasing universal approval.
“Whatever you want to choose as your career, you can. Wherever you want to go, whatever direction you want to pick, the kind of genre you want to sing without caring about whether people will like it or not, because in such a big world, you will definitely find your kind of audience. You don’t have to please everybody. So I think it’s a great time, and singers do not need any advice from me,” she added.
Still, there is one piece of wisdom she shares, something that’s been passed down for generations: “Just be true to yourself. Be honest with your art. That’s all you need. Rest will be taken care of.”
“Don’t be in a hurry to get the result. Enjoy the process. Because after the result, it’s all over. But till you get to the destination, the result, there’s a lot that happens. And it’s a beautiful experience,” Chauhan added.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)