If you are grooving to Mere Mehboob and Chuttamalle and earlier sang your heart out to Tumhare Hi Rahenge Hum, Chaleya, Besharam Rang or Ghungroo, then you are listening to ace singer Shilpa Rao. With a voice that resonates with honesty and power, Shilpa has carved a special place for herself in the Indian music industry, delivering hits across genres and gaining widespread recognition.
Over the years, she has consistently broken the mould, blending traditional Indian music with contemporary styles and making her presence felt in both commercial cinema and indie projects. At the audio launch of Devara starring Jr NTR, Janhvi Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan in Hyderabad, Shilpa Rao talks about Chuttamalle, her trending song from the movie, Telugu roots, love for food and more. Excerpts.
Tell us about your collaboration with Anirudh for Devara.
It’s always a great collaboration with Anirudh. It’s been like a jam more than anything else. He’s very quick and very decisive. I like that about being a musician and it’s easy to feed off each other’s energy. So, that way this song has been such a great ride. It is not a love song or a dance song but hits a very sweet spot between nice, romantic, slow dance music.
Tell us about your Telugu roots.
My parents and entire family are from here and they speak Telugu. Actually, the roots come from Vizianagaram. My great-grandfather is from there and we were born and brought up in Jamshedpur but of course, my grandmothers lived with us so we used to speak Telugu at home with them.
Do you have any special memories of Hyderabad?
Food! Food is always a special memory because my nani’s sisters were here. They’re no more but we used to visit them and we didn’t know where to go and have food because the best food happened at home. My grandmothers and my aunts were such great cooks so we would have a lot of good Dum Biryani and there was always some nice Bagara Baingan.
What do you think about Hyderabad’s music scene, be it Tollywood or independent music?
It’s great. I think it’s a great time for all forms of music that are happening right now. People who are doing film music, people who are doing Indie music, people who are doing any form of regional music. Now the language barrier is gone. There are people who don’t understand Telugu or Tamil or Kannada or Malayalam but are grooving to the songs. So I think music really has crossed over those boundaries so easily. And I think that’s one way to really unify India. If something can make that happen, it’s music.
Everyone knows you as a versatile singer. Who is Shilpa Rao at home, away from the limelight?
If you leave me, I would be happily climbing trees and sitting on one of the branches, I think it’s a very peaceful thing to do. I love to travel and read books. I travel for food especially. My association with any place is always about the people and the food.
What inspired you to be a singer?
My family wanted me to be a singer. I didn’t have many aspirations growing up, I wanted to climb a tree or probably not even that. I am like someone who doesn’t have a plan.
You have been in the music industry for many years now. How has your journey been?
In a nutshell, meeting great people, working with them, learning so much with them, learning so much from them and of course, eating good food.
If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would that be?
Inconsistent, inconsistent, inconsistent. That’s who I am.
You have collaborated with so many composers and singers. Do you have any bucket list of artists you haven’t worked with yet?
Many actually. I want to work with Sting, The Weeknd and Shoshinsha.
What’s the initial thing that attracts you while choosing a song?
I think subtlety is one thing which I like. Be it a dance song, be it a love song, be it something that is more intrusive — you need to have subtlety. It shouldn’t seem like you’re trying too hard to achieve that expression or what you want to say. And of course, I love the lyrics. I’m a huge sucker for good lyrics. A great tune, it just hits you, there’s no shying away from that.
You have performed live in so many places here and abroad. Do you change your singing when performing live?
Yes we do. I think there should be bifurcation. No two things should be the same. So we try to adapt it to the stage. And we try to make it more people-friendly because over here, it’s not just you trying to express yourself. It is always bouncing off the energy of the audience.
You have sung in so many languages. How do you pick up the nuances in the languages?
It helps to hear music from that language. The more you listen to, it’s not just so much the phonetics or the pronunciation, it’s also the emotion that comes through it. So it always helps when you hear more music from that zone or that era.
Does social media help you reach more audience through reels or does it restrict you to a trend?
It’s a very nuanced situation. It’s not do this or that. First of all, the song that you’re making, recording or singing can’t be made in a way that it will trend. That can’t be the purpose of creating it. While you’re recording it, you get some sort of sense that this tune is really nice. The first time I heard Kalank, I just knew that this was a song that is timeless. But whether it becomes a hit or not, that no one can say.
And probably that should not be on your mind while you’re working on it. Because it stops you from expressing limitlessly. It stops you from thinking of what the song can be. For me, having fun at the studio is important. I really make that day count. Frankly speaking, after we complete the song, it’s not ours, it’s yours. Whether you like it or not. If you enjoy yourself, I think then the audience will also enjoy it. That’s something which I feel.
Do you have any tips for people who want to take up singing professionally?
Learn music. We always want educated people running the country. But we don’t have educated musicians doing music. I think that’s a very big vacuum. So, it’s very necessary to have that. There are small things you can do which can really enhance the song and that can only come when you learn. And learning means you keep learning all through your life. Because you run out of ideas at one point.
It really opens up your mind to so many possibilities. Definitely listen to a lot of different music. Don’t have a closed mind on that. Because music is really changing. Also have an open mind to failures. Failures are not bad.
What else is coming up from your end?
Mere Mehboob from the movie Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video released recently. Hope it gets all the love!