Singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo and his daughter Sharmilee launch the single I Wanna Fly to celebrate UN’s ‘International Day of the Girl Child'. A Mishra talks to them
With his new euphonious single I Wanna Fly, singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo dedicates this song to the United Nation’s ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. With the song, his daughter Sharmilee Supriyo, also made her debut.
International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated to spread awareness of the importance of nurturing girls in developing countries. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign. Supriyo decided to be part of the initiative and recorded the song.
The song shows the relationship between a father and a daughter and features the emotions that a daughter shares with her father. Sixteen-year-old Sharmilee shared her experience of working with her father, “I always used to think that one day I will work with my father but I never thought that I will get a chance to make my debut
with him.”
There is an interesting story behind Sharmilee’s launch. Babul recalled, “I was watching a match with the VP of Coke in a stadium. While watching the match, I told him that my daughter is taking training in tennis at Mahesh Bhupathi’s academy but her ambition is to become a singer. He suggested that we make a song on father-daughter relationship for the girl child day through which Sharmilee can make her debut.”
The Hindi lyrics of the song have been written by Javed Akhtar and the English lyrics has been penned by Babul and Anupam Roy (who has also composed the music). “I requested Anupam to make a song for my daughter and Javed saab wrote the Hindi lyrics. I wrote few lines of the song and Anupam made it even better,” said the proud father.
Amitabh Bachchan tweeted and appreciated Babul and Sharmilee for their song. Babul said, “It’s my daughter’s debut and Amitji’s appreciation made it even better.”
Presently, Babul is a full time politician, the Minister of State for Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. On asking him how he managed to take out the time for the song given his tight schedule, he humbly said, “Music is very close to my heart and I can’t stay away from it. Today, whatever I am is because of music and that is the sole reason I am able to manage my schedule even after being a politician.”
Sharmilee started singing at the tender age of four and still trains under her grandfather. Babul shared his experience of working with his daughter, “Sharmilee likes music so there is always a duet at home. So, in the studio it was a very sweet experience for us singing together. While dubbing, she herself used to say ‘Dad I can sing this line even better.’ The confidence level of her is quite remarkable.”
Babul smiled and added that Sharmilee is bit biased towards western music. When we asked Sharmilee about this, she said, “It is not like I am biased towards western music but, I want to be a part of every platform — be it Hindi, English or Bengali.”
Babul told us that he is currently doing a duet with Hema Malini and the track will be launched very soon. He added, “In the industry, it has become a trend that one single song is being recorded by various singers and even we don’t know that the song will release in whose voice.”