Jasleen Royal, who won the MTV Video and Music Award 2013, finds it rather odd when people categorise musicians as indie or Bollywood. By Jigyasu Joshi
Jasleen Royal could well have been part of the women’s national cricket team. Choosing between a career in sport and music, the latter won. “I love sports. I have an elder brother. So I think I was forced into bowling. He used to bat. So I just became good at spin bowling because he just wanted to bat. I got through the national team selection but dropped the idea of pursuing cricket. Opting for music just felt right,” she said.
Talking about indie musicians foraying into the Bollywood music space, she said she finds such categorisation rather odd. “As far as I remember, A.R. Rahman did Vande Matram, which was an indie hit and Shankar Mahadevan had Breathless. So many people have done both, lucky Ali too. These are the people I have admired. It really doesn’t bother me, what’s indie and what’s not. It’s music at the end of the day,” Jasleen explained.
Starting out with the keyboard at the age of five and then dabbling with various other musical instruments, Jasleen figured that she could play two instruments even as she sang. Initially she did lose beats and mix up a few tunes but soon perfected her act. Today, the one-woman band plays guitar, harmonica and tambourine simultaneously. “Depending on the songs, I choose the instruments.”
Fresh to the Bollywood music space, fortunately for Jasleen it’s been a successful ride so far with her last release Kho Gaye Hum Kaha, from Baar Baar Dehko, gaining good popularity. “I had composed the melody for Kho Gaye Hum Kaha long ago and I was really attached to it. I had heard Prateek Kuhad (co-singer) before. I really liked his music and he showed interest too. So I approached him, he wrote the lyrics and I pitched the song to my director, Nitya Mehra. They all loved it and that’s how it happened,” smiled the Delhi girl.
Jasleen caught public attention when she won the Best Indie Song award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013. She beat established singers and bands like Kailash Kher, Rabbi Shergill and Indus Creed to win the award for the song Panchi Ho Jaavan. She listens to all kinds of music — from S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, lakshmikant- Pyaarelal, to A.R Rahman, Jatin-lalit, Shankar Ehsan loy and Eddie Vedder. “I just love melodies. I listen to ad jingles as well. It doesn’t matter what language, where it is from. I just love music,” she added.
Excited to be a part of MTV Unplugged for the first time, she said that the complete experience was enlightening for her. “Ranging from Bollywood performers, singers, composers and from all the people who play all the instruments — all the musicians, the pianists, the percussionists, the arrangers. It is so good to be on the same stage as them, they are so experienced. I have got to learn a lot,” she said. Drawing a comparison between singing at Unplugged and recording in a studio, Jasleen continued, “When we record in a studio, we do things one by one. We dub the guitar, we dub the drums, then we dub the vocals. But when we go unplugged we don’t even rehearse much. At Unplugged, I went on stage with other musicians and singers and we just vibed well together. I am very happy with what came out.”