During a video call last week, singer Monali Thakur turns her camera to show me the view from her window, in Switzerland. The hills and the greenery look beautiful. She smiles and sweetly apologises for the rough weather in India. She is enjoying her life with her restaurateur husband Maik Ritcher, who she got married to three years ago without making it public. Even as she feels the pain of her parents in Kolkata who are battling the lockdown and cyclone Amphan, she is happy that her new independent single, Dil Ka Fitoor, is out and is being appreciated. The song’s video features Maik and her. She has three more singles planned in the next few months, but as far as playback is concerned, she does not know. Thakur talks to THE WEEK about producing singles, the work culture of the Indian film music and the things she is hoping to change.
Edited excerpts:
Could you talk about the process of creating Dil Ka Fitoor?
The song was composed by Kaushik and Guddu (Badhaai Ho!, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana) and they actually made the song for me. We had done this Bengali single, Dugga Elo last year for Durga puja and it worked really well. It encouraged us to do something more. Then, these guys said 'let us do a single for the nationwide audience'. So, they made this song for me and I loved it because it was so fresh. It is a beautiful melody and I loved it for that and when the song was completed, production turned out to be very new age. I had to sing three-four times to get the correct expression and tone because those guys wanted me to sing in a particular way. Then I was stuck in Switzerland because of the lockdown. But I did the final dub from here. I recorded on my own and had discussions over the internet.
Was it difficult?
No, I mean by that time we had been living with the song for almost a year. I knew the song. After a point what happens is that you get saturated with the same song when you live with it for so long. So, I took a bit of a gap (before) I dubbed it here. I think it was the first time ever I sang a song like this in my own studio here, on my own, sent it to the boys and they rectified it. But then, we had to think about the video. You guys now know that I have been staying in Switzerland for sometime. We have always seen these gorgeous couples, the Bollywood heroes and heroines in chiffon saris singing songs in Switzerland. But we have seen Switzerland in the summer, always. But I have seen how beautiful the winter is here, the Alps. For quite some time, I wanted to do a sweet love story with the backdrop of winter in the mountains. Maine socha ki khud ki life-story se hi thoda sa story uthati hoon or ye backdrop bhi same hi hai to usme hamlog shoot karte hai.
But your husband Maik features in the video. Was he okay with it?
This is exactly not our story, but the crux of it that the girl goes for a trip, meets a guy, falls in love is true. Rest of the things, like he is not working as a waiter and I did not travel by myself. We made changes. Maik actually gets very happy when I sing, when I work. He likes that a lot and he supports me a lot. But he was shocked when we proposed that he feature as the hero. He was like, “Why me?”, “Why am I doing this?” He was not the first choice. The first choice was a very good looking German model but we had limited time and we had never met; we were not sure if the chemistry will work. And, chemistry is very important in a music video, so we decided to let the model go and work with Maik.
This is your third single, after Tamanna and Dugga Elo. What has been your experience of producing singles and what are the challenges?
Tamanna was the first one as single on my (YouTube) channel, this is the second. Dugga Elo is a single and then I had Shy Mora Saiyan as a single, but these were with other labels. Tamanna and now Dil Ka Fitoor are singles which released on my channel.
I love the creation process. I feel very incomplete just standing behind in the recording studio and singing songs for a given situation, for films. That doesn’t give me satisfaction as an artiste because there are many more things that I would like to do, many more things that I would like to express. The freedom you get when you do independent singles, is to make a large story, you know all around the world, that is how it works for the music industry. The primary music industry of most of the other prominent countries, except India, is actually independent music industry and not the film music industry. As a musician, I really can’t wait for that day to come (when musicians have their own place). With all due respect, the film music industry is just epic. I am not at all saying anything about that, definitely not. I mean it is full of incredibly talented people. But for music, for the sake of the music industry in our country, for the ecosystem to be fantastic, like other countries, this thing has to be sorted out I feel. Independent, if not more, it should be at the same level as our film music industry. That is one of the reasons. Even though it is very difficult to produce a song and to make it possible for it to reach out to people in the clutter of songs and the stuff that keeps on happening, so many film songs, so many people are releasing songs, it is very very difficult and honestly the investment doesn’t even come back. We know that. Because how many songs cross a hundred or two hundred or three hundred million views? It doesn’t happen to every single single. But again it is extremely rewarding even if one song starts picking up and even if one song reaches out to many. That is like a fight and battle won and worth the struggle basically. I am hoping for that day.
The clutter that you are talking about, especially bigger production houses, say like T-Series, Sony or Saregama, are all doing singles. Their singles are also dominated by very popular faces
That is the problem I have. What is the idea of doing singles if they are only going to get popular actors. I know that helps them in the business. I completely understand. But then how are we going to get real rock stars like Beyonce or…, I am taking the most cliched name so that people can relate to what I am trying to say. Like Britney Spears or Rihanna, all the actual rock stars or pop stars around the world, you look at them and say, 'oh my goodness, what kind of production is that?' 'Are they actors?' They are not actors, they are actual rock stars. So why can’t that happen in India? And even if there is supposed to be rock stars, they are trying to make a Justin Bieber out of somebody. My heart bleeds to see that. Nobody wants to take the risk at all and that is just the sad bit of it.
You are an established name in the music space; you have won a national award (Moh Moh Ke Dhaage); people know you by your name. After realising this, did you ever try to have this conversation with the music labels when you started doing your own single?
Yes, we did. Actually, I will be working with music labels, but there are some deals that don’t go across while some deals go. It is not always easy to convince them, but I think that some labels are definitely trying to do that. Like a Viral (Music Group), or even Sony (Music), tries to do that to some extent. I can’t comment on the decisions that they make, but I have seen that they have tried to do that most of the time. It has to be much more aggressive, and I don’t know how much it matters to a corporate to fix the ecosystem. But I hope it matters to them eventually. But as I said, there are some labels, independent labels definitely, which are coming up, which are focusing on singles, in a very proper and authentic way. I think that will help. At least, it has started, that is good news.
And how do you look back at your journey of these many years? I think more than 10 years?
Yeah, more than that; 12 years. 2008 was my first release and 2008 was the year I was in Mumbai. Wow, 12 years (widens her eyes). I feel so old. Oh my god. It has been very challenging, exciting, rewarding and surprising as well. At times, when I thought nothing is going to happen, (things) happened. There has been many revelations, many beautiful moments as well as many disappointing moments. These shaped me into the person that I am. It gave me the scope to travel the world and educate myself and hopefully make myself mentally more aware. I still look forward to many many more years. The thing that excites me is that I still haven’t reached the peak of my career, so I am waiting for that. Maybe, the next 12 years will decide that. Let us see.
The initial few years, after your participation in Indian Idol, were really tough for you I guess
Yeah. Before coming to Mumbai, it was extremely tough because we were bankrupt and my family was in debt. I was suddenly forced to figure out a source of income. I could not finish my college and university, I am an undergraduate so I came to Mumbai and started struggling. But again, I think I always felt that somehow, whether it is nature, almighty, whatever… for me, nature is almighty so, somewhere I always had the blessing that even in the most difficult situations, I sailed through without a scratch. I got my first song in the first year when we didn’t have money to live. I ran away from Mumbai with my mother and Arijit (Singh) was also there. We ran away, literally in a train with another of Arijit’s friend. Those were actual struggling days, at least for me.
You ran away because you were intimidated by the entire experience?
No, we ran away because we didn’t have money to pay the rent. We had to basically go back to Kolkata. There was no money, so what were we going to eat and we couldn’t have stayed on the footpath. In Kolkata, at least we had a house there still; that also we eventually had to sell because we had no money but then things went in place, my first ever Bollywood song was a hit ('Zara Zara Touch Me' from Race). My first solo; that was a big launch for me, and then another song from the same film came. Then, I didn’t have to worry because then things started rolling gradually. The next fight was to break the stereotype because I had been classically and semi-classically trained. So, you know there have been stages, but I think that was the exciting part of life. Otherwise, it would be pretty boring.
What did it take to break that stereotype? Because at the time you started, all these pop numbers were doing really well, and for a 'Sawaar Loon' (Lootera) to do well, it would have taken a lot of effort
Kudos to Amit Trivedi and the entire movie team for that because they chose such a song and they made sure to promote it. Amit made that song. I will always be grateful to him and Anu Mallik for Moh Moh Ke Dhaage. I had to go and tell them, pester them, to please utilise me, tell them see this is what I can do. So, Amit was the first one to actually take it seriously and he kept it in mind. He created that song or usne mujhe ‘Sawaar Loon’ ka poora skeleton diya tha sirf, the composition, and he just let me do. with Amitabh (Bhattacharya’s lyrics). I loved it. It was such a beautiful song, so I automatically did what I could. Hardly, we took any time to record that song, hardly any time. Few takes and the song was done, but yeah, there are so many things to fall in place for things to work out; it is quite exciting to think about it.
A lot of female singers, including you, have spoken about rampant sexism in the music industry. How do you deal with it now? Have you accepted it as a part of the system, or do you now raise your voice?
I have not been completely integrated into the music industry for the past few years because after a point, it became really difficult for me to deal with the things going on in the industry. So, I kind of moved away because I believe my spiritual health and mental health are very important. It became very stressful for me to handle and cope with situations which I just could not support and understand and didn’t want to support. I don’t want to talk about it elaborately, and I am sure anyone watching it from the industry will know what I am talking about. But anyway, I don’t think I am a crazy, angsty lady. When I see sexism, at least I put an effort to shut them up completely and with utter confidence because I have lived my life with integrity and independently without harming anyone. I get my confidence from that. And even if they are big people, I shut them off. If it is politely sometimes, I do. It has not gone right with me, diplomatically in the industry, but yeah. But it exists and that has to be gotten rid off. I don’t want to take any names but there was a movement that had started in India. They handled it so poorly that nothing happened out of it. In India, it just disappeared, nothing happened.
When you took a back seat, nobody was seeking you out, I mean the composers you have already worked with and others.
For composers, seeking out is okay but it is more about who is signed up with what label. It is exactly that. Even if they want, I don’t think they can to an extent. I think few of them realised that I am not okay with the brainless remixes. I had also messaged people that I do not appreciate keeping me in the dark. Even if I do not sing, that is okay. But I would like to know what I am doing. Beyond a point, I stopped understanding what is going on.
What now. What have you planned?
I had four songs to release. So now, we have three more songs to release. But with this entire lockdown situtaion, we can’t even shoot. Fortunately we had shot in Paris, now the post production work will be going on. But then, everything stopped. Somehow, the team was kind enough to start the editing of the second one. After I am done with the promotion of Dil ka Fitoor, we will set out the edit and post production of the video and final vocals. So, these songs are releasing. The songs will come out as singles and not a composite album because I don’t want to constraint myself in time; album would mean I will have to release back to back.