The songs you ' ve sung so far and the projects you ' ve been associated with range from being religious, patriotic, feminist and experimental. How do you choose your themes?
Recently I made a song for Shivratri. It is very close to my heart, if you read the lyrics. To me, that is the essence of life.
If you ask if I ' m a spiritual or a religious person, I would straightaway say: spiritual. India, by culture is a very spiritual country. I got into spiritual music after meeting Sadhguru. I went to the Isha foundation in Coimbatore. It was a year after my self titled album. My energies were pulling me towards doing something more cultural, more traditional.
The first album was chosen by Sri, Ahmed and Mom. They gave it a very school girl image. The second one also had a college vibe. The third, ' Masaka Masaka ' became very glamorous due to the demand of the song. It was more like an experiment. After ' Maska Maska ', ' Kalakkal ' happened. It was the first bilingual project. It also was the first Tamil Remix album. Post that was ' Smita '. Right after that, I said, " we ' ve done so much of school, college, glamour and remixes, we ' ve never touched the aspect of culture and tradition." This was when I wanted to call my album ' Mantram '. The idea was to have an algamation of all the Indian traditional dances with a little contemporary music with a little Vedas and fusion.
During that process, a friend of mine said, " you should go and see this place in Coimbatore. It ' s amazing and there is a ' dhyana linga ' there. You should see it before doing anything next." That weekend itself I took a flight and went to Coimbatore. I went around seeing the place. There was so much energy drawing my attention. It was truly magical. I found about the courses they offered and took up the first course. Before getting into this I was a very non guru and nonyoga / meditation kind of person. I never thought I would be pulled into something like this. My grandmom was extremely spiritual. She would go into dhyanam for 42 days without food and water. She was probably the most educated in the family; she did an MA in economics and went on to be an MP MLA for 30 years. She was a self made woman. She passed away just a year before I went to Isha. I went there and just couldn ' t control my tears. This was what my grand mom was doing all her life and we didn ' t recognize it. We weren ' t with her in the process. I would say that she lives with me even more everyday now than she was when she was alive. She was a part of my first step into spiritual life, even though she is physically no more.
The ' inner engineering ' programme turned into a very beautiful experience. I was a very emotional and sensitive person. Every small thing would pain me deeply. This helped me a lot in transforming my inner self. Right after I gave birth to Shivi, I said I want to make one dedication album to my guru, where all the money that comes out of the project goes into the foundation activities. It was a permanent music piece that they owned. I wanted to release it in the Telugu market so that Isha is known more. This was the first time that Sadhguru( Jaggi Vasudev) actually gave permission to shoot a music video in Isha. It was a truly magical experience. That was my first step deep into spirituality. On the other side, whenever I felt there was a need to make music and build awareness on something, I worked on it. That ' s how ' Wake Up India ' happened. This was when I felt that we needed a strong leader. Saw that Modi Ji( Narendra Modi) was the only hope. As I offered ' Ishana ' to my guru and the foundation, ' Wake up India ' was an offering to Modi Ji. A lot of people asked me if I was contesting or if the party paid me to make this. It was a responsibility and not a personal agenda.
How do you juggle between owning a production house and an art and dance school, being an activist and an artist and managing your personal space?
My first business started in December 2003 was Bubbles Hair & Beauty, a chain of salons in AP and Telangana. My mom always told me " you should have your eggs in different baskets. Don ' t put your energies just into one thing. Especially in the film industry, life can
There was a point when people started saying, " why are you getting into social and spiritual and losing all your pop. That ' s what you are known for." But again, it has to come from within for me to do it.
be short lived. If you want freedom to be able to do what you want to, you should have a business. You should be able to build your career in different aspects ". At that time there were not too many salons in Hyderabad. The only good ones were in 5 star hotels. I said, " why not bring a 5 star salon outside a hotel where there is more access to people outside." That ' s how Bubbles started. We had a first mover advantage. We grew much more than expected.
After Bubbles, my musicdance school happened out of passion. While doing all these music videos I learnt a lot. I went on to learn gymnastics, martial arts and different kinds of music. I did a lot of research while I was training; I thought, " why not make this opportunity available to everyone." That ' s how MAD started.
Another project I am closely associated to is called ' Aalayam ', which is a handloom initiative. I do a lot of work with weavers on setting up designs. We work on vintage handloom saree patterns. I ' ve always liked to be connected with handlooms in some way. That ' s how ' Aalayam ' happened. I partnered with Shravan, who is a very popular designer and we started ' Aalayam ' together.
I handle all of this because I always had a good team. I always trusted the people I would appoint and delegate a lot of work to where they also grow and learn along with me and the business. My husband, Shashank is also involved in Bubbles. He is more the systems persons.
I ' m the one who brings in ideas and he brings in the system. It ' s a good balance.
Going back to music, how did Kilikki happen?
There was a point when people started saying, " why are you getting into social and spiritual and losing all your pop. That ' s what you are known for." But again, it has to come from within for me to do it.
I soon felt, " it ' s time for me to do something very pop, very fun, very stupid, very everything." Bosco( choreographer) has been a very close
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