‘Don’t give up your life. Fight against depression.’ - With a powerful message on battling depression, city-based singer Nikhita Srivalli Malini’s first cover song of Adiga Adiga from the forthcoming film Ninnu Kori has been making waves on YouTube ever since it was released last week.
In less than a week, the video has garnered thousands of hits and views across various social networking sites. And much to her surprise, the film’s audio production house Mango Music selected her cover song video among hundreds of others across AP and Telangana as one of the top four winners.
A trained Carnatic singer and a faculty of Shankar Mahadevan Academy, Nikhita says she loved the song for its soulful music, but it was also a big challenge to lend voice to a song originally sung by a male singer.
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“The bass note was comparatively low scale for a female singer. I had to move beyond my comfort zone to stick to the original note,” says the 25-year-old.
‘Break-up anthem’
While making cover songs from upcoming films has become a rage, what makes this video stand out is the conceptualisation of the theme and a poignant rendition of the song that has become the new ‘break-up anthem’ among youth. Produced in association with Local Wire and shot by cinematographer Anvesh of Action Pixel, the video narrates story of a youngster who commits suicide due to a failed relationship and gives a message on combating depression.
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The theme resonated with the young singer who had witnessed many of her friends sink in the dark depths of depression.
“I have seen my friends go through severe phases of depression and being in very fragile emotional states. There were times when I would think 10 times before rephrasing my sentences to them, lest they get hurt and burst out. Depression has become alarmingly popular among the youngsters today and it is more often to do with relationship failure,” says Nikhita, a gold medallist in MA (music) who was also the first runners-up in Super Singer 8 singing reality show.
Even as her first cover video continues soar in popularity across social media, the young singer is clear that film industry is not where she wants to showcase her talent.
For her, music defines devotion and that’s the genre of music she revels in. “I get utmost satisfaction in devotional music. Though cinema brings in a lot of fame, the inner peace you get from devotional music is unparalleled,” says Nikhita.
Her initiation in Carnatic music started at a young age of seven and even today, she never misses out her daily two-hour music practice before starting online music lessons for her students in US and UK every morning.
She was part of the Annamayya Pataku Pattabhishekam TV series which was held in the city recently.