Shilpa Rao: Female actors and musicians are going hand in hand when it comes to things changing

Singer Shilpa Rao talks about things changing for female singers, and why all this never affected her criteria of choosing a song.

Solo female songs -- the ratio between them and ones sung by male singers has always been under scrutiny. Recently, Sona Mohapatra had also pointed it out in an interview to us. Ask Shilpa Rao, another established singer, on whether the disparity indeed exists, and she says, “I think it all changed last year amid the pandemic. We have been able to see that change because no film projects released. Female actors and musicians are going hand in hand. We are picking out good content, and it is working out great.”

Shilpa Rao has crooned chartbusters such as Bulleya and Manmarziyaan.

The 37-year-old, who has crooned chartbusters such as Bulleya and Manmarziyaan, adds that even when the scenario wasn’t this better, she stuck to her beliefs and never did a song just for the sake of it.

She says, “Thankfully, I have not had to do that. I have done music that I connect with very naturally, especially with people that I connect with a lot. I don’t have a very high screening process, but the only thing is, say any person who wants to work with me especially if it is a newcomer, I ask them to please send me the song.”

Only when she can connect with it, is when Rao agrees to lend her voice to it. Nothing else matters to her apart from that. “I always believe a good song can come from anywhere, a person who has made his first song, or one who has made his 100th, or someone established all over the world. I don’t have any bias on those lines. Even if a 15-year-old kid wants to do a song with me, and if I love it, I will do it,” says the singer, who recently came out with her solo song, Phuljhadiyon, which was featured in the film Mimi starring Kriti Sanon.