The Score Magazine - Archive April 2016 issue! | Page 13

SHUBHAM GOYAL
SMITA VALLURUPALLI
Its little over 15 years since Smita released her First album "Hai Rabba" and went on to deliver
many super successful albums there on. Smita is truly the first multi lingual south Indian pop star
to emerge from Telugu land. She delivered over a dozen hugely successful albums in more than
6 languages. Her versatility has seen her sing from pop to purely devotional songs.
Her rendering of "Ishana", a collection of spiritual Sanskrit hymns mesmerized global
audience. Her current release "Baha Kililki" is the first single in Kilikki language, a
language created by Madhan Karky and introduced by S.S.Rajamouli in his magnum
opus "Bahubali". She has received various accolades for her pop, playback and live
performances including a filmfare award in the year 2005 for best female playback singer.
We had a chat with the sensational Star on her life as a musician and other exciting stuff.
Ho w were things looking before 'Hai Rabba' and how did
you get there?
I did 'Hai Rabba' when I was in 12th standard. The first time I ever
recognized I could sing and even take it professionally was when I got
selected for a Telugu TV show called adutha "P Theeyaga". It was one
of the first reality shows which started on ETV. My mom, without
my knowledge, sent my tape in for selections and I got a call saying
I was selected.
My dad always used to say, "Playback singing is great. But why don't
you do something that is not just playback singing? People should
know the face behind that voice too." He was a big pop/English music
lover. He used to travel to all concerts, be it Madonna in the 80s or
Michael Jackson. It was Dad's idea, but Mom was the one who took
it forward. She said, "Lets work on a music video". A couple of years
before that, the Hindi music video scene started. We then said, "Why
not!" We didn't think about Telugu at all. We said we'll do a Hindi
album. We had Sri composing music and video was shot by Ahmed
Khan. I was more a performer than just a singer. SPB ji in Padutha
Theyaga used to say to me in all my episodes that there is a lot of
energy. "I'll see you more on the screen than off the screen." I kept
saying no. But he said, "Wait, and that's where I'll see you." Everyone
still remembers that episode.
Ahmed Khan was then a very well known choreographer. He was in
the limelight. At one point of time, everything shown on the screen
was his work. So my mom said, "Let's go (to him). He will help us
make the video." Ahmad heard the song and said, "I would love to do
this video." So ended up taking the project. That's how 'Hai Rabba'
happened. Then people started saying, "you're a Telugu girl and
you've made an album in Hindi. We want to see you in Telugu." That's
when we dubbed the whole thing in Telugu. So it was a Hindi Project
which slowly, 6 months later, got converted into Telugu.
What were your plans when you started playback and won a
Filmfare for the best singer?
'Hai Rabba' certainly got me recognition. That was a very school
girl, very fun kind of an album. 'Masaka Masaka' made me pro. The
number of CDs we sold at that point (was huge). They say that the
Music label still sells that album today. It went on to become one of
the biggest audio hits of the Telugu Industry, when compared even to
the top films of those years.
I sang a couple of songs before Hai Rabba but Right after 'Maska
Maska', I sang a lot more songs. It was then that 'Anukokunda oka roju'
happened. It had my first Filmfare award winning song as a playback
singer. I enjoyed doing playback but I loved doing independent music
because I had absolute ownership of the music and the idea. I could
experiment with anything. I had a choice of producing this or that.
The audio market was great then. The CD sales would recover the
cost of production and audio companies were paying and buying
rights for my music and videos. The freedom that I had in making my
own music was a different experience.
One music director I really enjoyed working with was MM Kreem.
The Filmfare was also for one of his films. People who have known
me and who understand my voice culture think that I have gotten
into singing fast songs just because of pop music. They believe that
my voice would sound a thousand times better and more soulful in
melodies because I feel every word that I am saying or singing. So the
next music video that I am making is going to be a very soulful one.
Tell us about 'SMITA.' Why is it self­
-titled, is there any
particular reason?
There is no particular reason. The album did not have a very
particular flavor. There was one romantic melody, one folk melody,
one with a very dhol­folk­Rajasthani kind of feel, one was very Pujabi
retro and one was very pop. There was a mix of different kind of songs
in that album. We couldn't therefore name it on one of the songs.
Also, to retain one name for all the languages, it was easiest to say
'Smita'. This was the first album that was released in Tamil, Telugu
and Hindi. The Hindi and Tamil was released by Sony BMG and for
the Telugu version, we sold the rights to Aditya Music. Just to retain
the name as a common reference, we said, "Lets call it Smita."
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