Divya Vineeth was never confident about her voice. So when her husband, actor/director/producer/singer Vineeth Sreenivasan asked her to give singing‘Varavayee Nee …’ for the film Saras , she was sceptical. But the response to the song, which she sang with Vineeth and composed by Shaan Rahman, was a big boost to her confidence. “I never thought people would like it,” she says.
Also Read | Get ‘First Day First Show’, our weekly newsletter from the world of cinema, in your inbox . You can subscribe for free here
Divya has now sung her second song [for a film] for Hridayam , composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab. The film, starring Pranav Mohanlal and Kalyani Priyadarshan, has been written and directed by Vineeth.
‘Onnaka Munthiri…’is currently among the top Malayalam songs. “I asked Hesham if we could record it with Vineeth in the recording room. He is my confidant, my friend…I don’t know if I would do it if not for him!” she says. She also released a single‘Uyarunu Parannu…’on YouTube.
Incidentally, it was Vineeth who set his engineer wife on this unexpected path of music. He shared a song she sang on Instagram, which met with a lot of appreciation. The response to that song, rendered casually with Vineeth, came as a surprise. “I thought ‘really?’ I have learnt music for only a couple of years or so as a child, and was nervous..”
So, when Saras director Jude Anthany Joseph and music director Shaan Rahman asked if she would sing ‘Varavayee Nee…’she was unsure. Vineeth convinced her to give it a shot, likewise with‘Onnaka Munthiri…’“Hesham wanted to first try the song in my voice, which we did and he decided to go with it.” Divya credits Hesham for how the song has turned out, “He made the entire recording session very comfortable.”
As she has spent most of her life in Tamil Nadu, she was apprehensive of her Malayalam - diction and pronunciation - being criticised for not sounding ‘Malayali enough’.
Based in Chennai, she feels removed from the response despite positive feedback and congratulatory messages. “I did not imagine this in my wildest dreams. I am happy and grateful.”
