Akriti Kakar: Unfair to strangle our dreams due to the fear of not getting views
Singer Akriti Kakar says that the obsession with getting a million views should not stifle an artiste's creativity
A couple of months ago, singer Akriti Kakar collaborated with veteran singer Usha Uthup for a single, titled Golemale. And now, she has collaborated with singer Kumar Sanu for a track. Titled Sohbatein, the number has an ’80s vibe and it has been composed and sung by Akriti.
Ask if the reason behind such collabs is a way to do something out of the box, and Akriti says, “Collaborating with such veterans isn’t a strategy. It’s what I think is a perfect fit and justifies not just the song, but also the presence of that legend. When Sohbatein was made, I could hear Sanu da’s voice and darte-darte I approached him. He said yes immediately. The same happened with Usha ji. I hope to continue the same streak.”
But such experiments may or may not land well with the audience. Does she think of streaming numbers when making music? “I should, but I don’t,” responds the composer-singer, adding, “I do everything with my heart. I’ve learnt that music will get picked up either immediately and give you joy, rewards and money, or may be nose dive and not work at all. In both cases, you learn. There also may be a third scenario where someone someday discovers your song and it might go viral. But it’s not fair to strangle our dreams as artistes with the fear of not getting millions of views.”
Why a song with the ‘80s vibe, we ask, and Akriti says, “I’ve always been a sucker for melody. The moment I received the lyrics from Geet Sagar, I wanted to make it into a retro colour melody. I just knew I wanted to express it with innocence and nostalgia. I wanted it to be about love from the time of no mobile phones or internet. The idea was to make the listeners time travel with us. Another major reason to take this route was to simply not do the cliche.”
Sharing the experience of being the studio with Kumar Sanu, the singer says, “Despite being a legend with decades of work behind him, he’s a stickler for punctuality. He wrote the song in Bengali script on his letter head and learnt the song properly. He gave so much respect and was happy to give options for lines too. He was so quick on the mic, cracked jokes and yet made sure the job was properly done. I learnt so much from him.”
Akriti adds that her parents and grandparents were the inspiration behind the song. She elaborates: “There was a picture of my daadi-daadu that spoke to me one evening while we went through old albums with papa. My daadu wore a crisp grey suit with a transistor hanging like a handbag from his shoulder. And daadi standing next to him in a silk saree and tidy jooda like a shy bride. In another one my daadi wearing Cat sun-glasses and a pleated silk saree holding a sweater and a transistor hanging on her shoulder like a handbag. It intrigued me so much!! Papa told me that’s how they used to go out on so-called dates. I spent days thinking about that time and feeling. I just had to make a song about that.”
In the current times when there’s so much content out there, is it a constant pressure as a musician to keep trying something new? Her song Golemale that marked her collab with singer Usha Uthup also had an unusual sound. “It was a totally new sound and an unimaginable, dream-like collaboration with Usha Uthup ji. I love taking risks and doing what is not usual. People say, ‘It might not work, why are you doing such large scale videos or collabs when you’re spending your own money, you may never recover it’. And I just tell myself, ‘I am doing it to build my own repertoire and earn moments for a lifetime and beyond. Working with legends like them is nothing short of a Grammy for me. Could I ever imagine even being in the same room as them as a kid ? And here I’m getting to perform and sing with them’. I want to treasure it for life.”