SMALL STEPS I was five years old [when] my dad's friend said to him, 'There's a show for the local community [in Delhi], let her go up on stage and sing. It'll be cute. She's so little people will love it.' At first my father didn't agree. Then he said, 'Fine'. He knelt down on his knees and said to me, right before the show, 'Go right there in the middle of the stage, sing your song to the mic and then come back.' That's exactly what I did. I didn't notice the applause, see the audience [the stage lights were too bright]. There was no fear. I liked to sing but which child doesn't? I had no concept of whether I was good or not.
But after that show, people kept going up to my parents to say, 'You've got something here, she can really sing. You must pay attention to it.' Since then, I've been singing on stages, small and big. And I've never been in awe of performing, because my first experience was so casual and matter-of-fact. Go to the centre, sing, come back, that's the approach I took for years after. Other singers moved and danced along. I was painfully shy. Finally, I started moving along and dancing a bit to the song. I started enjoying the experience of being on stage.
CELINE, WHITNEY, LATA AND ASHE There was no formal training, no in-born passion to be a singer - I never thought like that. I liked singing. I would listen to tapes of legendary Indian singers and mimic what they sang. I'd play the audio tape of the film Lekin again and again, and emulate the Mangeshkar sisters who sang on the album. Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston are other singers that inspire me. The control of their voice as they reach high octaves, the passion they exude when they sing is great. I love Jennifer Lopez, too, her music videos, her fashion, her dancing. The singing ... well, I love her. Can I leave it at that?
I used to mimic Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and other singers and actresses. I used to perform it as an act in my shows, until too many people, fans of theirs, started getting offended. My intention wasn't to hurt anyone, make fun of them, but people took it the wrong way. So I've stopped. I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just want them to enjoy music, so I used to copy their styles. Now, I have a huge catalogue of my own songs - I have no idea how many. Two thousand? Maybe more.
FANATICAL BEHAVIOUR The only time I slightly panicked was in Hisar [a small city in north India]. There were around 100,000 people there and I was the only singer with my troupe of musicians. They wanted to hear the song Beedi, which was a rage that year. I usually save it for the finale, as it leaves an impact, but the people started chanting for it. It kept getting louder, so I finally told my musicians, let's change it up and for the fifth song, I started singing the intro. The crowd went wild - they torpedoed towards the stage, broke the barricades. It was manic. Thank God we had cops and security. I was escorted out - the show ended right there. I've never seen that kind of frenzy for anything.
HITS AND MISSES I love to sing soft, melodic, romantic numbers, but I keep getting the pop hits that you hear in clubs everywhere. Not that I'm complaining, but I do love to sing every genre of song. I have no favourite music director or co-singer, I genuinely like them all. From [Oscar winner] A.R. Rahman, who's the most humble, soft-spoken soul I've met in the industry, to the newcomer music directors or co-singers. I have no qualms about singing for anybody, with anybody.