'Jai ho' star living a dream Tanvi Shah, who sang, 'Jai Ho' in
'Slumdog...' never looked at singing as a profession. Singing, for her, is
more a passion than anything else, says Hema Vijay
*T*he now famous Jai Ho song in mind, you come expecting to meet a star,
wild and elusive. But who you meet is a charming, down-to-earth young woman,
who manages to retain her humility despite her sudden thrust to stardom. And
the never-say-die spirit that Jai Ho resonates with is definitely there in
the singer Tanvi Shah who lent her voice to this Slumdog Millionaire song.
A restless person always on the move, a million things run in her head all
the time. "I can hardly manage four hours of sleep a day, and I wish there
were 36 hours in a day," she confesses. "Even if I consciously go to bed
early, I keep staring at the ceiling running through things I need to do
next," she says. This sense of energy shows through in her slim frame, in
the quick gait and the live eyes. "I am a workaholic and I can't keep still.
God has blessed me with these two passions. I would be stupid not to use
it," Tanvi says. For the uninformed, the other passion Tanvi Shah is
speaking about is designing. And her design profile includes not just
interior design but also jewellery, and even painting. Her singing and
designing passions rejuvenate each other, she feels.
Tanvi actually started off her career with a Masters in Ceramics, and had
earlier put in a stint as a graphic designer for World Bank in the US. But
the lass found the US life monotonous, and soon returned to hometown
Chennai, where she started her interior design store along with brother
Abhay. And with her family already into the jewellery design business,
jewellery designing followed suit as a natural flow of events.
"I don't want to look back and think, 'Oh, I could have done that'
and rue that I didn't do so," she says. Which is why she is able to meet me
this Saturday afternoon after a photo shoot, a recording session and a site
meeting towards her interior design work.
Incidentally, Tanvi never looked at singing as a profession. Even now, as
far as the young woman is concerned, singing is more of a passion than a
profession, notwithstanding the scores of songs she has sung for A R Rahman
(remember the throaty and rounded female voice in 'Oru Koodai Sunlight' in
Sivaji?) and Yuvan Shankar Raja. Right now, she has just finished working on
Delhi 6, with music composed by A R Rahman, singing two songs in the film —
Yeh Dilli Hai Meri and Rehna Tu. "I feel lucky to be able to dabble in
both," she says.
And curiously, her musical training started after she became a playback
singer, not before. "I was just a bathroom singer," she says. "And you know
we Gujjus like to sing whenever we get together," she laughs. A R Rahman had
accidentally heard a recording of one such song session. And thus opened
Tanvi's musical flood gates with ARR asking her to do the backing vocals for
Fana in 'Yuva' in May 2003.
So now we have the curious case of a singer getting into training post
success. Tanvi is now training under Prof Augustine Paul. She incidentally
looks at music as a stress buster, and as an entity that is ever there,
everywhere. "In the honking, the footfalls… and the drone of that AC is in G
sharp."
So how did she prepare for Jai Ho. "Rahman's brief was simple. He just said:
Go wild, and throw your voice out loud," Tanvi recounts. That's one of the
wonderful facets of Rahman; the fact that he encourages and manages to draw
the best from everyone." The other things that she learnt from Rahman are
dedication, determination, perseverance and above all, humility, she adds.
"Musically speaking, every time I enter his studio, be it for a backing
vocal or a full fledged song, I come out learning something new."
During the Jai Ho recording, ironically, Tanvi didn't even know which film
Jai Ho was for. Later, when she had gone to his studio for some other
recording, she asked him, if he had used the song somewhere. "Rahman said,
'Of course, and Gangsta blues too'." Now that the songs have won Oscar
nominations, Tanvi is understandably elated. "I sometimes think that it is a
dream that I am living." So, with a possible Oscar tag on the anvil, the
dream goes on. "The best part is, we all just went about our work without
expecting anything. I think that once we started expecting, the fun element
is no longer there, and you could end up disappointed, if the turn of events
is negative."
So, finally, how does the girl with the golden voice now feel after watching
Slumdog Millionaire ? Pained. She is quick to add, "But that is our
reality." And her philosophy for life? "To be a good person. Then,
everything else automatically falls in place."
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb152009/finearts20090214118516.asp
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regards,
Vithur
