OnTheBeatWith|Kavita Krishnamurti: ‘If I have another birth, I’d choose to be a singer again, maybe a male singer’

In OnTheBeatWith series, we revisit a musician’s journey in the industry, their music, anecdotes about their hits and their recording-studio stories. Kavita Krishnamurti has sung around 50K songs in 46 languages, in a career spanning over 50 years, and yet, when you listen to she talk about music, she has the infectious enthusiasm of a newbie. You cannot miss the inherent passion and unequivocal love she feels for music. Beginning her Bollywood career as a dubbing artiste in the 70s when she would record songs that would later be sung by the legends Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle , Kavita got quite a few opportunities to work with great composers. Her first official Hindi film song was actually a remake - Aayega Aanewala from the Shabana Azmi starrer Kadambari (1976) - was originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal (1949) starring Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and Vijayalakshmi. “Music has brought so much of meaning to my life,” says the multi-platinum recording artiste.  When she holds the microphone, the calm, soft-spoken person that she is, transforms into this remarkable singer with a powerful voice that could transport you into another world with her renditions. During the 80s-90s and early 2000 Kavita’s career flourished. She gave us super-hits like Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon from Pyaar Jhukta Nahin (1985), Aye Watan Tere Liye from Karma (1986), Mera Piya Ghar Aaya from Yaraana (1996), Pyaar Hua Chupke Se from 1942: A Love Story, (1995), Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai, Aaj Main Upar  from Khamoshi: The Musical, (1997), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Nimbooda from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, (2000), Aey Dil laya Hai Bahar from Kya Kehna, (2001), Dola Re Dola from Devdas, (2003) and so many others. Right from Hemanta Mukherjee, RD Burman, Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Ilaiyaraja, OP Nayyar, Manna Dey, Bappi Lahiri, Shiv-Hari, Ravindra Jain, Ismail Darbar, Anu Mallik, Jatin–Lalit, Nadeem–Shravan, Rajesh Roshan, Naresh Sharma, Uttam Singh,  Jagjit Singh, Usha Khanna, Anand-Milind, Louis Banks to AR Rahman, Kavita, a Padma Shri recipient, has worked closely with stalwart composers for decades and given us chartbusters consistently. “As a child, when listening to a song that I loved on the radio, I learned to enjoy the solitude of listening and not needing any person around me. Then came the process of learning from good gurus and teachers who taught me and helped me understand the essence of spirituality in music. From my college years to another fifty years of my life, I met delightfully talented and creative people who filled my heart with awe and admiration. The legendary artists, music directors and poets with whom I got to work to enjoying the process of making a song, to performing at concerts, to meeting different people from around the world though music – all this made my life,” says the honey-toned singer adding, “This music is what I share with my husband, my children and my siblings. Music is the biggest gift God gave me and I’m enormously grateful for that.” In the summer of 1987, Shekhar Kapur’s blockbuster Mr India starring Anil Kapoor- Sridevi catapulted Kavita to a different league. She had three songs Zindagi Ki Yahi Reet Hai, Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr India Se and Hawa Hawaii. For Kavita, the later was the “most exciting song ever”. Talking about the memories attached to this superhit track, Kavita shares, “It was just supposed to be a dubbing and would be used for shooting purposes. But I got a big surprise when Lakshmikant (of the music director duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal) called to say that they were retaining the song in my voice as the entire team felt my voice suited Sridevi.  I remember that as we were going over the song in the singer’s cabin at Mehboob Studio, there were only a few words like ‘Chihuahua, Honolulu, lulu, Hongkong etc.  Then Lakshmikant in a spirit of mischief asked some of the studio musicians (there were almost 100 musicians and chorus teams that day) to add on a few more words. So, Kingkong, asi tussi, lassi pissi got added. The final ending to this drama of words was Javed Saab’s (Javed Akhtar) entry to the cabin in the afternoon declaring that ‘Mombassa’ was the best word to complete the melodramatic entry of Sridevi in this song. Then Lakshmikant completed re-composing it. I, of course, spent some time wondering how I could make it sound funny!” In the year 1994, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s patriotic romance 1942: A Love Story, Kavita showed her prowess as a vocal artiste once again. All the songs in the film, composed by the legendary RD Burman (he died before the film released), were superhits but Kavita’s Pyaar Hua Chupke Se, got her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. It was the first of her hat-trick feat. “I love this song. I received my first Filmfare for Pyaar Hua Chupke Se from 1942: A Love Story. It was a memorable evening for me as Lata Mangeshkar was present and she congratulated me. That was a big prize indeed for me. Working with Pancham da has been one of my most treasured memories. A great composer and one of the finest people I’ve ever known.” After all the accolades and the success, over the years, Kavita says she feels very grateful. “Being part of the playback industry has been a dream come true.  In these last 50 years the film music industry shaped me as a singer and it gave me much more success than I expected from life. I shall always remain grateful to all the people right from producers like Subhash Ghai, KC Bokadia to eminent music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal, RD Burman, Bappi Lahiri, who had faith in my abilities and gave me my earliest successful songs. If I have another birth, and if I was given the option to choose, I would still choose to be a singer again…maybe a male singer for a change,” she signs off with a smile. Debarati S Sen is a consultant journalist and writer who writes on music, culture, theatre, films, OTT and more. 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