Actor-musician Shruti Haasan has been singing since the age of five but eventually found her calling in making independent English music out of her passion. While she is also known for her acting projects in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industry, she feels English music hasn’t reached its potential audience yet in India.
Recently, musician Ananya Birla, announced she is quitting music, also made an appeal to people for giving Indian made English music a chance.
Talking about the state of Indian English music, Shruti, who released her first Independent English song The Edge in 2020, says, “It’s much better than it was when I started out, but the legitimate Indian English music is not in a great place. I understand the value regional independent music.”
The 38-year-old cites the example of the popular Bollywood track Desi Girl, and makes an interesting observation: “The number of Hindi and Tamil songs that have English lyrics is huge and no one is questioning that. It’s baffling for me. It’s cute when you mix it with something and I understand that too but when it comes to an English song, I find an aversion to it which I find strange.”
Shruti, whose songs include HER and Toxic also shares that when she started out as an indie musician, people thought it was a “bad idea” but now people are more open to it. She also states the difference in regional music’s reach as compared to English music’s reach with the help of her own songs.
“I had a release called Monster Machine in English last year and this year I had a release called Inimel in Tamil. Both are in the independent music space but the reach of Inimel song as well as the video was higher,” says Shruti, adding, “I know that the reach of an English or Hindi song would be higher. I make English music because I am passionate about it. That is the language I can write in my songs. I can sing in many languages. In my music I try to very organically bring in the influences and the things that make me who I am as Indian English musician.”
Asked her about the obstacles that home-made English music face, and Shruti is quick to call out the bias. “However, ultimately the audience and their support truly drives and determines that change. I think of the audience supports artists more , stream more and go to their gigs and support live English music more it would make a huge difference,” says the actor, who was last seen in Salaar Part 1.
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