I was never in playback singing rat race: Usha Uthup at JLF Valladolid

Valladolid (Spain): Singer Usha Uthup was already a singing sensation in nightclubs in Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi in when Dev Anand approached her to sing for “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” in 1969.

Successful 54 years later, Uthup looks back at her introduction to playback singing with fondness and says she was never in the "rat race".

"I didn't start off as a playback singer and I never was in the rat race of the playback section because I started off as a nightclub singer, very proud to say, in a saree. I was already singing when Dev sahab and the Nav Ketan unit came to Delhi to listen to me sing,” she told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the recently-concluded JLF Valladolid.

Clad in a resplendent red and black saree, the jazz and pop icon recalled how Dev Anand and his film company crew had come specifically to hear her.

"Only after listening to me did they say they wanted me to work in their project, ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’. So it’s not really that I started as a playback singer. It came as a bonus to me. I am really happy and I always say it’s not a question of how good or how bad a singer you are, I think it’s how original you are," Uthup said.

She added that perhaps singing jazz, pop and rock made her original and "completely different from others at that time." Uthup continued to work independently though it affected her playback singing career.

"My not being in Bombay could have caused the fact that when they needed somebody to sing a particular kind of song they would always ask me, and if the dates were not available, then they would go to someone else. But I am a happy person and I am very comfortable in my skin. I come from a very happy place so I don’t feel bad that I didn't get so many songs, it doesn't matter," she said.

She added that while others made singing records of 30,000 or 50,000 songs, she probably recorded a total of a thousand songs in different languages.

Known for her distinct voice that gave her an edge over her contemporaries, Uthup became a jazz pioneer for Indian cinema-goers in the 1970s.

Her association with iconic music directors such RD Burman, Bappi Lahiri, and Shankar-Jaikishan gave Uthup memorable Hindi songs such as “One Two Cha Cha” in “Shalimar” (1978), “Shaan Se” in “Shaan” (1980), and “Hari Om Hari” for “Pyaara Dushman” (1980).

Having worked with an array of music directors, young and old, the singer is glad that they all found something "different" in her.

"I worked with every music director and I am so glad and proud to say that they all found that I could be different and I could be used somewhere or other. I enjoyed working with all of them, in fact. Working with the youngest and the eldest has always been a learning process for me. And I am still learning," the 75-year-old said.

Since 2000, Uthup has done playback for films like "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" (2001), "Jogger's Park" (2003), "Bhoot" (2003), "7 Khoon Maaf" (2011) and "Kahaani" (2012).

An admirer of singers ranging from Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal to jazz legends Jose Feliciano and Ella Fitzgerald, the Kolkata-based icon also has another love - acting.

"I love acting, I really love it. In fact it’s been an extension of my music and I was privileged and so grateful that I worked with people like Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, the great superstar from Kerala Mammooty. I am hoping that I get a nice meaty role again,” she said.

Uthup is currently working on the Indian adaptation of BBC’s detective drama “Sherlock Holmes”, where she will be working with KK Menon and Ranvir Shorey.

"I am really happy to say I am also doing a role in it. I am very excited. It’s just coming up,” she added.