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Excerpts from the interview:
Q: What prompted you to write ‘Parde ke Peechhey’ and now? And why?
A:
Many people asked me, ‘When are you writing your book?’. And I said, ‘Why should I write my book?’. After a long time I thought I’ll write a book. But then what do I have to offer my reader? My life, my struggles, people who have impressed me, my learning experiences. But when finally I started writing it was a Covid time. And everybody was suggesting that I name it ‘Choli ke peechhey’, after my famous song, because it will sell. I said ‘I’m not interested whether it sells’, the title I want is ‘Parde ke Peechhey’. The person behind the song, what is her strength, what are her weakness. I thought if I put the name ‘Parde ke Peechhey’ people will be reminded of ‘Choli ke peechhey’ and then they are forced to know.
Q: You have been privy and very fortunate to do a women’s domain of singing. What do you have to say about this tradition?
A:
I am fortunate that I am exposed to such women who celebrate their life and when they are alone. I have given lot of examples in my book that in weddings, women were not allowed to go. They used to be at home. Then they would talk, and not just talk, there would be folk songs. A woman could express herself in her dance, in her music, in her folk.
Q: You point out more than once in the book about hypocrisy with which society operates. Because you point out very clearly you have sufficient experience and empirical evidence to share in the book through your anecdotes that these songs are deeply, deeply seated and embedded in our society.
A:
At weddings, when I would be asked to perform, people would initially request me not to sing ‘Choli ke peechhey’. But after a few songs, people, especially women, would come up and ask me to sing the song, and they would dance. Because there is no vulgarity in it.
Q: When you’re writing an autobiography, it’s very hard to make that balance between what interests you and what you should put out in the public domain and what will actually keep the reader engaged. How did you choose?
A:
I write in Hindi. So I had written my book in Hindi. And Penguin, wanted the book in English and so it’s ‘as told to’ Anjula Bedi, who’s a very dear friend and she is also an actor. And she said ‘I’m amazed that you remember things in such detail’. A lot of people complimented me that when they read the book, they felt as if I was talking. But I personally am thankful to Penguin that they gave me chance to revisit my childhood.
Q: I kept wondering whether you had maintained diaries or did your interlocutor Anjulaji. Did she do a lot of research?
A:
No, it was the other way around. Anjula Bedi is my Ganeshji. When she first came, she said, ‘I will interview you’. I said, ‘No way, I will talk. It’s me, I’m going to tell. You cannot ask me what happened. I will keep on telling you. And if you get some question, you ask me. Otherwise let me express myself. Let me tell you this story.’ So, like Ved Vyas, I started telling her. And like a good friend, she laughed. And sometimes maybe some one question triggered something and I started talking about something else.
Q: Towards the end you have a very strong voice and your arguments for that an artist should be compensated adequately irrespective of their gender for their artistic creations is very well done.
A:
We are all talking about 30 years back, but this situation of payment is still the same. Nobody wants to pay you. And this is not done because it’s a business. You are taking somebody’s intellectual property. Initially I was carefree or careless, you think you are getting a break. So one has to warn younger people to have confidence in their talent. Here in this industry it has become a fashion to say, ‘You are new, I am giving you a break’. And with the result that women are really exploited.
I have talked about piracy. I have talked about companies cheating the artist. So thanks to Javed Akhtar and all who fought for copyright and things like that. Now I think having a manager is the best thing.
Q: How do you track the royalty? How do you track the number of units sold? And this gets complicated more in this day and age when technology has made streaming services for music available. And of course the onset of AI.
A:
I created AI versus IA because everywhere, one doesn’t know now what will happen. Whatever I have sung, AI can misuse it. My face can be created. Where will artists go? They have only what they have, intellectual property, or they have their art. And everywhere they are exploited. So something has to be done, otherwise there’ll be a lot of jobless artists. We artists shouldn’t be ignorant, but we should value ourselves. We must work hard and we should be paid. And we should never be depressed, never be.
