Kanika is tuned into success

Kanika Kapoor

Kanika Kapoor

Published Mar 30, 2015

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Songbird Kanika Kapoor has an interesting story to tell when it comes to her career. Bollywood Hungama’s Rajiv Vijayakar reports…

 

 

What happens when a Lucknow girl learns classical music, completes the Visharad and then her masters in music from Bhatkande University, and then settles in London as a young wife and mother of three – while also exposed to all kinds of music there? The result is broadened horizons!

And that’s probably why Kanika Kapoor has excelled in music after deciding to use her Indian classical training base to excel in every kind of musical genre, including playback singing since Baby Doll in 2014 (from Ragini MMS 2).

“Playback singing is not at all my final goal, though I am doing a lot of it. I always wanted to be a performing artiste,” said the singing star.

Kanika’s repertoire now includes her latest songs, Chhil Gaye Naina (NH10) and Desi Look (Ek Paheli-Leela). In between, we heard her in Lovely and Kamli in the film Happy New Year and Chhithiyan Kalaiyan from Roy. She is now singing – apart from for Sunny Leone with more films to come after Ragini MMS 2 and Ek Paheli-Leela – for Alia Bhatt.

Meet Bros Anjjan, Vishal-Shekhar, Sanjeev and Darshan Rathod, Raghav Sachar, Jitendra Shah and Amit Trivedi are among the other composers in cinema who have recorded with her.

“I am doing a lot of singles now, including with international artists like British producer Naughty Boy who has just won a Grammy. I am also doing Sufi music, which has such meaningful lyrics and great melody. I love any music that touches me,” she says.

Kanika has always been a child prodigy: “I hail from a relatively modern Khatri family from Uttar Pradesh with a lot of emphasis on culture. My guruji was Pandit Ganesh Prasad Mishra, who would come to our house to teach my chachaji. He is from the banaras Gharana and has been a close relative as well as guru to Pandit Rajan and Pandit Sajan Mishra. When my family saw my musical inclinations, I also began learning from him.”

As school and other competitions became a cakewalk for Kanika, she also remembers her dad buying her a Yamaha keyboard during a trip to Dubai when she was just 10 years old.

“It was a very big deal then. I soon had a mini-studio in my house with huge speakers and all the recording facilities.”

She also became a child artiste with All India Radio and got stage exposure when she began singing for family friend Anup Jalota.

“Between 12 and 15 years of age, I must have done 20 to 22 shows with him, with my own 15-minute classical act, in which I would sing tarana, raags and semi-classical songs.”

Asked who her favourite old composers are, she mentions RD Burman: “I would cry while singing songs like Tujhse Naraaz Nahin (Masoom),” she says.

Before marriage, Kanika had performed around the country, stayed in Mumbai to follow her education, signed up with Universal Music and even did acting classes with Kishore Namit Kapoor for a year. Not that she has any acting ambitions now.

“Have fun while singing it!” was the Meet Bros Anjjan’s brief to her when they called her for Baby Doll. “Give it your best!” they told her. And Kanika says she did exactly that.

“I made the song and the emotions my own, I did not know that the song was to be filmed using Sunny Leone, and if I had, it would have not made any difference because I did not know who she was!”

So, what next?

“I don’t run after anything, and I run away from people who run after me!” she declares.

Impressed with her statement, she repeats it for our benefit. “Whatever I dreamt of doing, I did,” she goes on. “I am living my ambition, there is so much to do and I have just started out. I do not over-think and I am going with the flow, so I am floating with positivity.” – bollywoodhungama.com

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