She’s a familiar face on the television screen, having hosted many popular shows. And now, Bhavna Balakrishnan — or BB, as friends call her — is venturing out into a new creative space as singer and dancer. She’s just released The Mashup Series, a musical offering that will see her performing a mash-up of some popular numbers.
The first on the list is an interesting combination of Camila Cabello’s ‘Havana’ and MS Viswanathan’s ‘Partha Nyabagam Illaiyo’. “I’ll be doing a style of dance in all sets in this series. In this, I’ll be trying a bit of salsa,” says Bhavna.
The idea came about when she had a lull for three months in Mumbai. “I was thinking, ‘Should I take it easy’,” she laughs, “But my mother would have none of it. She knew that I’d always wanted to sing and asked me to use this time for that.”
It was around the same time that she sang at a corporate event and the client liked her work. “I wanted to use my USP in anchoring for my music as well — so I sang in Hindi, English and Tamil. I liked doing mash-ups, sets like ‘Idhu Varai’ meeting ‘Careless Whispers’. I even did ‘Lungi Dance’ and ‘Danga Maari’ once. In four minutes, you get a taste of both songs.”
She’s trying to do the same in her upcoming mash-up series. Bhavna looks at this new avatar as one in which she’s reinventing herself. “In the industry you’re in, there’s talent coming in every day. There is a fear of shelf life. You need to reinvent yourself in quick succession,” she explains.
That’s the reason she got into sports anchoring as well — she hosted the kabaddi league. “It gave me a lot of pride,” she says, “It’s not much celebrated, but officially it is an important sport. I felt proud taking it to the masses through the small screen. It opened new avenues for me.”
Like the Mashup Series, feedback for which she’s looking forward to. “When you’re nervous and you sing, your voice quivers. I had to get rid of that.” Performing was a completely different ball game for her. “Even after 1000 stage shows, this was different.”
But what helped was that she knew that there were few people in the performance space. “At a starting level, there are few performers who can dance and sing. I wanted to position myself as someone whose music you can dance with, not music you can sit back and listen to.”
Even as she prepares for the IPL, which she’ll be hosting in Tamil, Bhavna is looking to record more numbers for her Mashup Series. She isn’t too interested in the movies though. “Until now, the ultimate thing for anyone in the media was to act. I want to break that stereotype. Why can’t I be an anchor progressing into sport or other performance avenues? There are many places other than the silver screen to progress and make people say that ‘you’ve arrived’.”
