‘Mental Manadhil’ from OK Kanmani , ‘Mei Nigara’ from 24, and now, ‘The Breakup Song’ from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil ... Jonita Gandhi is on the crest of a wave. Over telephone from Mumbai, the 27-year-old says with a laugh, “My phone has been buzzing with messages ever since the (‘Breakup’) song released. Many were quite surprised when they came to know that I had sung it. I am not sure why.” As for Jonita, it was one of the most fun projects that she had done. “We were partying and recording… it was dramatic,” she says.
Jonita has a lot on her plate, from recording for movies to performing live gigs. But she also talks about a dream that she has been holding on to for sometime now. “Writing music... I want to sing something that I have written from scratch. How cool would that be,” she says, a little lost in thought. “I have written in the past, but I am just very picky. So I am not sure whether many of those will see the light of day,” she adds after a pause.
Meanwhile, she is consciously making sure that her YouTube channel (Jonita Music has over half a lakh followers) thrives – given that’s where she began her journey as a musician. “I used to record my song videos, all covers, on my phone and post them,” she recalls. Later, as her channel continued to gain visitors, she started making professional videos, self-produced videos and collaborating with different artistes. “This was way back in 2011, and that’s how far I could reach Bollywood from Toronto. But it helped me get a foot in the door, as several music composers recognised me, and next thing I know, I was doing a tour with Sonu Nigam in North America,” she says. Following the tour, Jonita debuted in Bollywood with Chennai Express .
“Till then, I had only performed in live shows. I hadn’t recorded a Bollywood song from scratch. Understanding and learning a composition on the spot was new to me. So I was extremely nervous,” she recalls. The first song she recorded was the title song of Chennai Express for Vishal-Shekhar. “The song was already done, and the male voice was by SPB sir. There was a small part in the song that features Deepika Padukone in the visuals and they wanted a female voice. I just happened to be around then, so they told me to try it out, and it all came out well,” she says.
She was then spotted by A.R. Rahman, with whom she worked on the album Raunaq and Tamil film OK Kanmani , among others. “I was in Chennai once, so he asked me to come to his studio and record in Tamil. Thankfully, I had people around me who really supported me. I had no idea how well I was singing the words. I had to rely completely on whoever was directing the videos to visually set everything right,” she says with a laugh. “On my first trip to Chennai, while working with Rahman sir, I had no idea who we were recording for. But I was just happy to be working with him. He is an amazing person and makes people super comfortable, and while most think that he is quiet, in reality, he is a very funny person,” says Jonita, who is trained in Western Classical music.
Looking back, while her academic degrees (she has two undergraduate degrees in Health Sciences and Business) did little to contribute to her career as a singer, she says, “Music was always there on the side. I used to come home from school during weekends and perform at events. It was already my part-time job. Even at home, there were always old Hindi songs — those of Rafi, R.D. Burman, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle — and 90s Bollywood music by Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam — playing. I grew up listening to them.”
