Playback singer and independent artiste Shashaa Tirupati, known for her hit numbers such as ‘Vaan Varuvaan’ from Kaatru Veliyidai , ‘Baarish’ from Half Girlfriend , ‘The Humma Song’ from OK Jaanu , has recently dabbled in songwriting. She has been coming out with independent tracks in Hindi and English, with songs such as Oceans Rained , String of Air, Beparwahi and ‘Hum Kahaan Hain’ — all released on her YouTube channel.
Now, for her most ambitious original single yet, Shashaa is collaborating with singer Chinmayi Sripaada for a music video, whose theme is to urge women to ‘speak up’.
Time’s up
“The song is titled ‘Roothi Hui’ in Hindi and ‘Yezhundhu Vaa’ in Tamil, and it marks my first collaboration with Chinmayi. It’s an ode to women coming out in the open and talking about things they are afraid of,” she explains, about the core idea of the song, adding, “By that, I don’t mean to say that the theme is limited to sexual abuse or assault. The song also touches upon other issues that women don’t feel comfortable talking about in public, for the fear of being labelled. Which is why we end up becoming our own enemy by maintaining silence. But that’s changing now.”
Shashaa, who has also composed the song, is full of praise for her team. She is also quick to admit that she was fangirling over Chinmayi when the duo worked on the track. “She is such an inspiration, and I’m her biggest fan! She sings like an angel and has the most soulful voice. Besides that, she’s a phenomenal woman and we are all in awe of what she’s doing to empower us. Both of us will feature in the video and I’m really excited to shoot for it.”
Elaborating that the video will be out in January, Shashaa says that this is the beginning of a series of singles in which she will be collaborating with multiple artistes — Papon, Harshdeep Kaur, Abhijeet Srivastava and Vishal Dadlani to name a few — to release original content.
“I really want to get the ball rolling on the Indian independent scene, outside my film songs. The idea is to get more talented names out there and create content that represents the world we live in,” says the Indo-Canadian, who is also currently working on a travel vlog for her YouTube channel, as her work takes her around the globe.
“All these independent songs will also be on my upcoming EP titled ‘Stitched’, which is scheduled to come out in March next year,” she signs off.
