Nikhita Gandhi, who shot to fame with A R Rahman’s ‘Ladio’ has since recorded a number of hits in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Bengali. Her latest song, ‘Dhayaanchand’ in Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan , is different from her previous ones because she’s tried something new. “It’s my first song with Amit Trivedi. When we met, he just told me, ‘Let’s try something different. Can you rap?’ I’d never rapped before but his faith in me prompted me to give it a shot. I think it was bold of him to take that call. But it felt so right so I think it’s meant to be.”
Nikhita released her first independent single ‘Humshakal’ recently. “I’ve composed a bunch of songs before but I wanted this song to be my début. The song is all about exploring a newer version of yourself, which in my case, was the aspect of mine as a composer. At this point, the theme of finding and redefining yourself is very authentically me.” she says.
An avid supporter of independent music, she says she loves collaborating with other artistes and indie bands. “Right now, I’m doing one with Underground Authority in Kolkata,” she says. Speaking about the independent music scene in India she says, “It’s growing beautifully. Many indie composers are getting their due in movies. It’s heartening to see that talent is being recognised. There’s still a lot of scope to be explored in indie music, so this is really important.”
No stranger to performing at colleges, the young musician wrapped up the music tour of Manmarziyaan across seven cities recently, “As someone who enjoys the stage, this tour was right up my alley. It was so much fun. When I’m on stage, I feel like I’m in my element and this time, I got to rap as well so the experience was mind-blowing. It was fun to unleash the rapper in me,” she laughs.
Armed with a degree in dentistry, Nikhita is working with her father, a doctor himself, on Medcrisis, a project that aims at conducting workshops on emergency medicine and healthcare awareness.
Working on her next single, projects in Bengali and recording for films, Nikhita seems to be juggling a lot of things with ease. There’s more in the pipeline, but she signs off with: “The rest can be a surprise!”
