Akasa: I am feeling vulnerable but not losing hope

Her latest music video "Shola", a peppy dance number, is a hit with her fans. However, with all her upcoming projects on hold, singer Akasa says as an artiste she feels vulnerable, although she is not losing hope.

May 27, 2021, 10:02 am ISTMusicIANS

AKASA.

"The song 'Shola' literally happened at midnight. The lyricist Charan wrote the song in the middle of the night and then just composed the hook line, recorded it in his phone. Next day morning, with the idea and lyrics, he came to me suggesting we develop it like a happy, peppy number. We sat together and worked on it. We were not doing the song with an agenda. If it did not work for us, we would have not officially made the video or released the song. After recording the song, all of us -- the creative team, producer, everyone -- were listening to it and getting the vibe. There's an infectious energy to the song!" Akasa told IANS.

The video, released on YouTube, is directed by Vijay Ganguly, and it stars Akasa along with actor Rohit Saraf and Charan.

"Rohit are I are friends and we often talked about collaborating. He would always say I want to dance in a 'shaadi' (wedding) number! When this song happened, none other than he crossed my mind! The rest of the credit goes to the director of the video, Vijay. But Rohit is looking so happy and happening in the video!" smiled the singer, known for Bollywood songs such as "Kheech meri photo", "Kudi Gujarat di", "Aithey aa" and "Dil na jaaneya".

Akasa says the pandemic has created a situation where all artistes are bound to feel vulnerable.

"With no live gigs, with budget cuts on projects, and with no film or shows, I think all artistes including myself feel vulnerable. I was working on two projects, and video shooting is paused because of the second wave of the pandemic. It's more than a year now that we are going through this," she said.

"I am feeling vulnerable, but at the same time I have learned to live 'one day at a time'. I am not making a plan for the next three months, because in January I did not know this was coming in April and May. At the same time, I have also learnt to be responsible, because I am privileged. I never analysed earlier why being privileged comes with responsibility. Any artiste is a bit more emotional than others, and so am I. I know, I believe at least, sab theek ho jayega (everything will be okay), I will shoot my next music video, I will again go on stage and perform. As long as we are alive, we will unite on live gigs," she signed off.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)