Sowmya Raoh is the flavour of the season in Bollywood. Thanks to her Aiyya! hit with Rani Mukherjee singing ‘Dreamum Wakeuppum’, the versatile singer has the industry waking up to her singing style once again after the hit ‘Nach Baliye’ from Bunty Aur Babli (2005). “Well I am living my dream,” laughs the singer, adding, “I knew that the song would do very well. The quirky lyrics are the mainstay of the song; I knew they would catch on. Still there was no way I could predict this kind of amazing response!”
Composer Amit Trivedi wanted a South Indian singer for the peppy number and Sowmya was selected on a common friend’s reference. “Amit and I barely knew each other. We had just exchanged a hello at a friend’s party. Actually that’s the thing with me. I rarely network or socialise with industry people,” says Sowmya, explaining why she’s not doing as many songs as she can.
Asked if she tapped her wacky side to belt out this vivacious number, she says, “Actually I am not vivacious. Only when I am with my brother, do I get a little crazy. The wackiness exists within me, but as is the case with an actor, a singer too has to exaggerate emotions. Actually the best compliment I received was from Rani. She told me that I had put in a lot of expression into the song and I feel no other actor could have emoted it better.”
Sowmya, who has mellow songs such as ‘Aankhon Mein Raho’ from Company and ‘Shauk Hai’ from Guru to her credit, says, “While the catchy numbers have given me instant success; the more melodious ones have given me a long-standing fan base. I still receive emails for these songs. Even in the South (Kannada, Tamil and Telugu), almost 95 per cent of my songs are super hits. I am very happy with the success of my songs but not with the volume of work. Hope Dreamum Wakeuppum changes that!”
