CHENNAI: Shweta Pandit has only been credited with having sung one song in Kollywood, but insists that Chennai’s music fans are some of the best that she has ever seen. And that’s not just because the last time she performed here was alongside A R Rahman to kickstart the Jai Ho Tour. Not many might remember, but when she was all of five years old, she had to come down to namma Chennai to work with Ilayaraja on Mani Ratnam’s Anjali.
It was 1991, when the runaway success of Anjali, prompted the ace director to dub and release the film in Hindi, and that’s where Shweta came in. Now, two decades after she spoke as the endearing Anjali, across screens in North India, the exciting young singer is prepped to set the stage on fire at IIT-Madras, “College crowds are like one big party,” she gushes, “There is so much energy, it’s incredible!”
And she couldn’t have come at a better time. Shweta had her first song in Tamil in the Arya-Madhavan starrer Vettai, that released last weekend, and the reviews have kept her cheerful, “I was very excited after I sang Kattipudi, because working with Yuvan Shankar Raja was such an experience,” she says and adds, “I’ve heard that the song is being loved a lot, so I’m super interested in seeing how the buzz is (in Chennai).” The city holds plenty of good memories for her, she recounts, “Chennai for me is the hub of amazing composers like Ilayaraja, A R Rahman and others, but the love and affection I received when I performed at Mahabalipuram (with ARR) was heart-warming.” No prizes for guessing that she jumped at the chance of performing at IIT along with Bollywood biggies Vishal-Shekhar. Riding on a high after a string of hits in high-budget Bollywood flicks like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Yamla Pagla Deewana and Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, Shweta says that looking Southward is something that she has always cherished, “All the songs that I did last year were hits and so I kept busy by singing in Telugu films like Panjaa and Bodyguard. Everything’s gone really well so far and so, I’d love to sing more Tamil songs now,” she reveals. So will she be trying her voice at some Tamil for the Chennai audiences on January 22? “Well, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I’ll definitely see what I can do,” she promises.