Antara Nandy is on cloud nine. The Internet sensation who shot to fame during the lockdown with the Balcony Concert series on social media and who is best known for being among the top 10 contestants of Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer-composer A.R. Rahman’s YouTube Original show ARRived, makes her big debut with Mani Ratnam’s upcoming magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan. “It still feels like a dream,” said Nandy, 22, an alumna of DPS Ruby Park in Kolkata. Trained in Hindustani and Western classical, Nandy made the Tamil song Alaikadal hers with her impressive vocals and linguistic ease. An excited Nandy shares her journey from a cover artiste to kicking off a new journey as a playback singer. Excerpts.
A.R. Rahman had lauded your performance in ARRived and you have been working with him for quite some time. How does it feel to finally debut in his films?
I have been working with Rahman sir for the past two and a half years but I never thought my playback debut would be in a movie of this scale and with Mani Ratnam sir. It feels like a dream. Honestly speaking, somewhere in the subconscious mind I was wishing for Rahman sir to launch me but I didn't know I would get more than I wished for.
I was in Pune going to my college for an exam when I got a call from Rahman sir’s team, asking me to board a flight in a few hours. I had to make a choice between taking the exam and heading to Chennai for a recording. I choose the latter — Antara Nandy
How has it been working with Rahman so far?
As a child I have literally worshiped him. I had a notice board at home where I had only his pictures and would bring an agarbatti close to the pictures. So, he has been like a god to me. I was 14 years old when I first went to train at KM Music Conservatory and when I got the opportunity to perform there, I did this fun piece in which I clubbed this opera piece, Western classical with the melodic bandish. And that fetched me a standing ovation from all, including Rahman sir.
Cut to 2019, I was in a show called ARRived where he was the main judge. Just before the finale, I was in Pune going to my college for an exam when I got a call from Rahman sir’s team, asking me to board a flight in a few hours. I had to make a choice between taking the exam and heading to Chennai for a recording. I choose the latter and it changed my life forever. When I entered the studio it felt like a temple and I sang with Jonita Gandhi, a singer who inspired me to start my YouTube channel. That was the best day of my life. It was surreal. Since then I have been singing scratches for him and that too has been an incredible experience.
How did the song Alaikadal happen?
To be honest, while I have been singing scratches, I always hoped one of them would get approved someday. Like I have heard a lot of stories of first scratches getting selected. It’s rare but it has happened and the same thing happened to me with Alaikadal.
Believe me I had no clue which song they were talking about when I got a call saying my scratch has been selected for Mani Ratnam’s film. I had sung Aliakadal some two years ago and I had sung it with a few other songs. Also, since it was in Tamil, I hardly had any memory of it. I sang it in 40 minutes which really impressed everyone. So I was called again to record the song in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada.
With A.R. Rahman
Given that it was in Tamil, a language that you are not very comfortable with, how challenging was it?
Singing in a language that you know is always a lot easier than a language which is unknown to you. There’s a difference between singing covers and an original track. When you are listening to an existing track you take it as reference and then add your inputs and improvise but when you are singing for a movie track and you don’t have a reference point and that makes it extremely challenging.
There are a lot of other things to keep in mind. Like you need to do justice to the scene, to the actor you are giving voice to, you need to make sure that you are understanding the point of view of the director, of the music director and, most importantly, make sure that you sing the best and no other singer can sing it better than you.
The song was quite complex and I had to keep a lot of things in mind, primarily the pronunciation and being able to emote the right way. Alaikadal is the song that introduces the character to the audience; it’s a track that expresses pain and love and I had to express that through my voice.
With Mani Ratnam
How was it working with Mani Ratnam?
It was insane working with him. He is the kindest, most humble person I have known despite being such a big film-maker. He was so involved in the process — be it in lyric writing or coming up with the tune, he was present night after night, calmly giving inputs and explaining the song while I was dubbing. I was very fortunate that Rahman sir recorded me. He has a funda — he makes sure the singer doesn’t get tired and he doesn’t like the singer giving too many takes. He too was very kind and patient.
We are sure this is just the beginning. So tell us about your future projects.
My younger sister Ankita and I started this Balcony Concert where we would put out covers adding our own folk and classical notes to it. So I intend to now focus on releasing original songs on it. I know it’s a lot more challenging to get accepted for non-film originals but as a creative person I would love to put out my compositions and see how it works. Apart from this I am looking forward to working in Kolkata’s film and music industry.