Neeti Mohan: Create opportunities for yourself

Neeti Mohan

The obliteration of the dominance of '90s pop music took with it some of the most revered artistes of the era, leaving only a select few who stood the test of time and held their ground in the industry. Inarguably one among this lot, Neeti Mohan credits her ability to seek opportunities as a reason behind her success.

"You have to create opportunities for yourself. No one is sitting there waiting to hand it over to you. You have to be so good that people want to work with you. And that can be done by offering something new with your voice [modulation]," she says, adding that even the tremendous growth of music reality shows in current times can be attributed to this trend. "Today, artistes display [their individuality] when performing on stage. This is unlike how things were in the past when contestants would ape the singer who was dominating that era."

Even while establishing her skill sets as a singer, Mohan says she continued to be uninhibited about exploring different genres. "I opened myself to different kinds of music and artistes, and that made me better. The most empowering thing for any artiste is being given the chance to do something new." She counts her associations with frequent collaborator AR Rahman as among the highlights of this journey. "Singing for him changed me. It made me a courageous performer, one who is willing to explore different languages and genres. I owe my ability to [tackle] different languages, to him. [The ability to] focus on the tone and stress on words differently [are factors I learnt from him]."

One among the collaborators on T-Series Mixtape, Mohan finds herself joining forces with industry bigwigs Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani in two distinct episodes. "Our songs are super mushy and romantic. With Vishal, I've worked on Tumhe Apna Banane Ki Kasam, and mixed it with Chaand Chupa. With Shekhar, it was Aahatein, and Kahin Toh." On her part, she says she'd love to revisit the works of [Pakistani folk singer] Reshma and Abida Parveen for a platform like this. "While growing up, we heard their folk songs. I like expressing raw emotions, and folk [helps me] do that."

Also Read: Neeti Mohan and Aditya Narayan's musical face-off!

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