You are 14, with aspirations of being a singer and you make a debut with A. R. Rahman (and continue to sing for him on later projects). With a song like ‘Oru Deivam Thantha Poove…' in Kannathil Muthamittal directed by Mani Ratnam, you qualify as prodigious. This, probably, is the trajectory of a high achiever. At 10, you were awarded a scholarship for being the young talent for Carnatic music and at 16 you get a gold medal from All India Radio (AIR) for ghazals and a couple of years later a silver for Hindustani music as well. Welcome to the world of the extremely talented Chinmayi Sripada.
Singer...
Playback singer, voice-over artist, polyglot, entrepreneur...she wears many hats, comfortably. “By the time I was 14 I had seen only three Tamil films – ‘Anjali', ‘Bombay' and ‘Puthiya Mugam'. And I loved the music in the films. When I found out Rahman sir was the man behind the music, I made up my mind that I wanted to sing for him,” says Chinmayi. A childhood spent in Mumbai is why, she says, she was exposed to very few Tamil films. Although she started off with Tamil she moved on singing in other South Indian languages and Hindi. The scorcher of a song ‘Mayya Mayya…' from ‘Guru' is hers. Some of the other Hindi films for she has sung for are ‘Delhi 6', ‘Jhoota hi Sahi', ‘Mausam'. As far as her recent Tamil films (in the latter half of this year) go, she has sung for as Ra.One (Tamil version), ‘Ko' and most recently ‘Engeyum Epodhum'.
Giving a voice…
She not only sing for the actors, but also gives voice to actors such as Bhumika Chawla, Trisha, Tamannah, Sameera Reddy etc …how does she take both, dubbing and singing along? “It is quite easy. And anyway SPB sir did it much before I did.” She also runs a translation services company, Blue Elephant.
Found in translation…
But translation services? She smiles and says, “there is so much to do.” In between singing, doing voiceovers, she qalified as a web designer and learnt German. It was a chance translation job that led to her taking it up seriously and eventually setting up Blue Elephant.
On being mentored …
The first week of October was spent in the United States participating in the Fortune/ U.S. State Department Global Women's Mentoring Partnership. She was among 26 women (mentees) chosen from across the globe. She met Indira Nooyi there and a month later she is still excited about it. “That was the high point of the programme. Some of the most powerful people in the world were present there. People like Warren Buffet, another person that impresses me was Jamie Miscik, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates.”
What paved the way to the mentorship programme was the Women Entrepreneur of Excellence Award instituted by the SAARC Chamber of Women Entrepreneur Council.
Applied…
Very excitedly she moves on to the next topic. “And you know I am the only musician in India with a mobile phone application with my name, Chinmayi Sripada.” She shows her app on her iphone. She was skeptical about the application, initially. “ ‘Who would be interested?' was my first reaction but there are now around 25,000 users. Even from Iceland.” Her songs, videos, awards, social media – it's all there. Twitter, Facebook, blogs…she does it all, although she admits she has been irregular with her blogging now, thanks to tweeting.
Baked…
Her kitty, musical and otherwise seems to be brimming. When she pops another one: “I love baking. Last year when I came back from Canada, I was allowed 65 kgs of luggage of which 55 kgs were to do with baking,” she says, her passion evident when she talks about it. In fact, she rather grudgingly lets out, that she has a brand of ‘cake pops' (cake - lollypops) called ‘Pop Culture.'
