RISHI PRASAD

Hoping to make it big
He is the new singer on the block, dancing all his way in his first music video Tauba tauba from his album Tu Goriya Mera Dil with Venus. Looking at his bulging biceps and quick dancing steps in the video, one might mistake him for one of the model dancers. But then you hear him sing and he sounds convincing enough to make you sit through the entire song. Rishi Prasad is a fresh entry into the already crowded scene of Indi-pop. But he sounds good, at least better than the other newcomers, who have only looks, but no talent.

Son of a sitar-player Meera Prasad, Rishi has had a musical atmosphere all around him, right since childhood. He received training in classical and semi-classical music from his mother. After completing schooling in Delhi, he graduated with Arts from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. All along he participated in theatre, fashion shows and also DJing, all of which were his hobbies. Singing, too, was one of them.

Before coming up with this album, Rishi was into media work outside India. He sang for the Hong Kong radio station, compered fashion shows for Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, Sarah Waltuk in Bangkok, Lagerfield, Miyaki and Isaac Mizrahi. In India, he did shows like Namaste India for Zee, and Double O Slip on Sony. He also earned name as a singer at the radio stations of Paris and New York.

Then he decided it was time to do something serious in music. And incidentally he happened to meet Jawahar Wattal, who is a well-known pop-album music director. “I met Jawahar in 1999 and we talked about doing an album. We started with jam sessions and Jawahar liked my voice. Then there was a lot of experimentation with sounds, arrangement and we even changed some of the songs to get a better feel. For two years we worked on this album at Jawahar’s studio in Delhi and what you are getting now is a finer product,” says Rishi.

Talking of his earlier experiences in music, Rishi recollects, “In my late teens, I thought of branching into Western music like most youngsters of my time. But after working abroad and gaining a lot of experience all around the world, I decided to stick to my roots and hence opted for Indi-pop. Indian because English numbers by an Indian artist would not work in India, and pop because the album should have a commercial viability besides creativity.”

The music video is directed by Seven Plots and Vaibhavi Merchant has done the choreography. There are a variety of songs in the album which include dance numbers, love ballads and two Sufi numbers ‘with a rock feel’. “I am very thankful to Champak Jain and I would also say that Vaibhavi has been very helpful during the shoot of the video. Had it not been for them, things would not have happened this well,” he adds.

Rishi wants to pursue singing seriously and he even intendes doing playback. Now, its time for the listeners to decide whether Rishi will be able to shine as an outstanding singer or just be another face in the crowd.

Lopamudra Bhattacharya

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