CHANDANA DIXIT
'Pop is what makes you popular'

For a singer who’s been struggling to make her mark in the singing field since 1994, Chandana Dixit is heaving a sigh of relief that she’s been noticed at last, with her debut pop album Jawani, released by Venus

Besides a surname, what Chandana Dixit shares with Madhuri Dixit is the ability to break into a charming smile any time. And the presentable looking singer has enough reason to flash her smile often these days. Her debut pop album Jawani, which was released by Venus last month, has got a good response she says. Especially the song Hun hun kare jawani meri has attracted a lot of attention, what with a well-shot video, which features her alongwith Rajshree Rathod. “The video has resulted in good sales of my album,” says Chandana, “It feels nice because I had always wanted to make a career in professional singing, and I had been working towards it for six years. Thankfully, I have been noticed now.”

Singing is in Chandana’s genes. Her mother is a Sangeet Visharad and her father sings as a hobby. “It’s all in the family,” she says, “We pursued singing even when we were residing in Nigeria, during my childhood. There was no scope to learn Indian classical music there, so I had my early training from my mother. Every weekend, my parents would be invited by other Indian families to perform at their houses, and as I got older, I too started singing with my parents. We were probably the only Indian family there to own a harmonium.”
When Chandana’s family shifted to Pune, in India, she started learning classical music from a reputed teacher even as she was doing her commercial art. She seriously decided on a career in singing when she won a first prize at a competition in classical vocal when she was 16. “The prize was a pleasant shock and I thought of learning music in a committed fashion,” she says, “My parents and my relatives too said that singing was what I should take up.”

After her training, Chandana landed in Mumbai in 1994 to particiapte in an audition held by leading music company Tips. “I was the only singer selected among the many who auditioned, and that was flattering,” she states proudly, “The music company wanted an artist to sing for their entire non-film repertoire, which includes devotional and regional albums, and I signed a contract with the company as their in-house singer.”

Though Chandana says that singing for non-film albums was a solid training ground for her, she admits she lost out on some good offers from other companies because of the contract. “For an upcoming singer, it was a good experience singing for non-film albums, because I got to sing all types of songs. It gave me a lot of confidence. But the flipside was that I couldn’t accept offers from other music companies, and offers stopped coming altogether even after my contract was over, since people outside thought I was interested in singing only for Tips,” says Chandana.

Why didn’t Tips give her exposure by cutting a pop abum with her? “Well, at that time Tips wasn’t into pop albums,” says the singer, “Otherwise the company would have surely cut an album with me. And it would have brought me into the picture earlier because pop is what makes you popular. I wouldn’t have had to wait for six long years to make my presence felt.”

In between though, Chandana did manage to sing a couple of film songs, namely Goriya chura na mera jiya for Coolie No. 1 and Sheher ki ladki for Rakshak, and the latter was a big hit. “The Goriya song came to my by fluke. The singer who was to sing it, didn’t make it for the recording, and I was aksed to dub it instead. The song clicked and Anand-Milind, its composers called me again to sing the Rakshak song. Even that clicked, but I couldn’t cash on its success because my name wasn’t mentioned in the Rakshak credits. So not many knew that I was the singer. Also because of my contract, I couldn’t sing for films outside Tips. I was stuck singing non-film songs for two years, till ’96.”
But Chandana is not sore with Tips and says she is indebted to the company for giving her “good mike experience.” Adds the singer, “It’s my bad luck that I couldn’t cash in on the opportunities.”

The low phase continued even after her contract with Tips was terminated in 1996. “I had no offers because the general impression was that I was a Tips singer. Only Anand-Milind, who knew me because of the two film songs I sang for them, asked me to sing for them. I did sing for films Bhai, Daanveer, Jaane Jigar. But since these songs weren’t promoted on televison they didn’t get popular, and in turn didn’t help me,” she says.

Luckily for her, says Chandana, music companies kept track of her and she did get quite a few offers for pop albums. “One of the offers for a pop album came from Venus in 1997, and I took it. That album has been released now, after three years, because the company had signed a lot of artists, and by the time their albums were released, mine got delayed. But I’m not complaining. Things happen when they are destined to happen,” she smiles.

Since Jawani has been in the making for three years, a lot of work has gone into it says Chandana. “We planned the album as a dance track album,” informs the singer, “So you have five upbeat dance numbers, of which two are bhangra tracks, and three have Calypso beats. Champak Jain of Venus, composer Tabun, lyricist Dev Kohli and I went for the tracks which sounded good to the ears. There’s a philosophical number which I like very much, and which was a bit difficult to sing, especially to get the right kind of expressions.”
But the singer didn’t have much problems getting the right expresions for the music video, she says. “I enjoyed shooting for the video, though it’s my first one. There are only fleeting glimpses of mine, and I was completely unprepared for the shimmery look in it. But it’s turned out well,” she smiles.

Jawani has brought Chandana the attention she had been wanting, and she describes the response as “warm.” What’s next? “I’d like to sing for all music directors and cut more albums, though nothing has been planned as yet,” she reveals, “And I don’t want to be stuck singing just peppy numbers. Soft, romantic duets are what I’d like to be associated with. Just like my ideal Lata Mangeshkar, who I think is the ultimate, and who has set such a high standard in singing, that I doubt anybody can even come anywhere near it.”

Salma Khatib

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