Introduction
It is such a pleasure when we go back to the state of Odisha after many months. We are glad that ‘this long delayed’ write-up is released for good. In the summer we are going to places that we never thought we will be able to reach out to. Stay tuned to hear about Smule’s reach to the world’s corners through music.
Sulagna is a great friend to us, a peer behind the scenes, and a great singer who brings the culture and heritage of a great historic state to Smule. We had visited this state’s music before through many good singers, starting from Pratiksha dash, Bhupan Tyagi, Jugal Karan, Jyoti Mishra, Lyssa M, and Arindam Pattanaik. If you missed the links to those features are embedded in their respective names. We had also studied the playback industry of the state extensively.
Interviewing Sulagna was entirely a different experience, from the standpoint of her love for Odisha culture that she imbibed from her famous dad. Her illustrious play-back career, with a pinnacle of winning the state award for her singing, all the more exciting facts. We are ecstatic to bring the story of a fantastic music career to our readers. Sulagna is on the blog team for the coming year screening and suggesting for the entire Odisha Smule community; thankful for her past and continued presence in the peer list.
Introduce yourself
“Sulagna Nanda, that is my name and I was born in Cuttack and brought up in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, and have been living outside of India for the past ten years.” Sulagna was calling from Australia.
” Music has been in my blood. My dad, my uncles, aunt and my brother all are good singers. Presently, living in Melbourne, Australia I continue my singing. Smule has given me immense opportunity to sing various songs and learn so many things from such gifted singers out here.”
About your early music interactions
“I started my training in music by learning Odissi classical music; later shifted to Hindustani Classical music during my primary school time. Hindustani classical meant serious business. I still remember my dad waking me up every morning by splashing water on my face and while still asleep me doing riyaaz (practices).” Sulagna breaks into a big laugh thinking how she disliked those experiences then.
“Those were the moments when I did not realize the seriousness of singing so much, but with age and maturity I started understanding the deep devotion my dad had for music and that he wanted to see me go places in the world of music.”
A great disciple of a more famous Guru
“I did study music seriously, I have a degree of “Visharad in Hindustani vocals” from Gandharva University, Mumbai under the tutelage of my Guru Shri Uma Charan Das. I have been a disciple of him since 1998. He is a saint and an extremely learned man with his musical roots from Haridwar and Benaras Gharana proponent. He was a major influence on my classical singing. He has collaborated with my dad in recreating the Geeta govindam, in which project I gave my voice, along with Suresh wadkarji and Anup Jalota ji. Presently guru resides in Chitrakoota ashram in Bhubaneswar and still teaches kids who yearn to learn music.”
“My dad and my Guru are the constant motivating factors in my life that led me to get deep into music. To tell my other motivation is Alka Yagnikji and her singing has definitely had a lasting impression on me and I have always learned so much from her singing.”
You grew up as a daughter of a famous dad in Odisha’s cultural scene. Please tell us more about this.
“My Dad is a big advocate for promoting Odia culture and its language. He had traveled extensively and spoke throughout the country about the Odia language. He has a deep understanding and is very passionate about it. (He is currently advisory to the Odiya government in matters related to culture). My dad wanted the whole world to know about it. For me growing up as his daughter was a driving factor to know my own roots. Both my parents were always pro-Odisha and its great historic culture.”
To speak about his interest in music; My dad was born and brought up in an environment where music was always respected and it was inculcated into him at a very young age. My dad started playing tabla at a very young age to accompany his sister in the Odissi dance. My aunt used to perform Odissi on stage. My dad’s interest got to another level when he realized that I loved singing. He always showed huge interest in all arts and dance forms of Odisha. He would never miss a single opportunity to attend such events. A prolific writer and poet, he also had published several books about Odisha culture and arts. He run a monthly magazine, ‘Samaroha’ since the mid-’80s which is one of the oldest monthly Odia magazines that still exists.”
Your dad is also a music composer, tell us about it
“It was quite late he started composing music and focused more upon the traditional Odia tunes, themes and culture. I would say his biggest contribution is that he played a vital role in composing the album Geetagovindam and presenting it in a much more modern way for the new generation to listen and understand. His penchant for learning and contributing to the Odia language is a never-ending process. He has represented Odisha at such big platforms across the globe and his expectations from me have always been the same. He keeps telling me “Always feel proud of who you are, and the language that one speaks.” An absolute great lesson that Sulagna keeps doing on Smule, being one of the most influential singers in the Odia Smule Community.”
So your dad wants you to do what he did for the Odia culture?
“I was a very introverted girl at schools but that mask came off once I reached college age. In fact, I became quite outgoing and famous throughout my college years for being a good singer and on-stage performer. It was during this period my participation in an all Odia singing competition that was aired on television for which I won the first prize.”
“My life completely changed after that win on the show. I started getting offers for serials and movies and it was such an exciting phase to learn new things and meet new people. I had been a Yuva Vani artist for All India Radio at a very young age. I had sung and performed on stages with most of ‘Ollywood’ (Odia music industry) celebrities. I was really fortunate I sang playback with Udit Narayan ji ( for the Odia movie Rakate lekhichi Naa), Anup Jalota ji & Suresh Wadkar ji ( in Geetha Govindam). These all opportunities came to me so early in my career.”
What do you say is the highlight of your singing as a recording artist? State award-winning?
“Rendering voice for a project ‘Geetha Govindam’ was a divine opportunity which is bestowed upon a person by the almighty. Not everyone gets a chance in a lifetime to croon the Gita Govindam. In that short span of my public musical career, I won the State award for best playback singer for my movie song Rakate Lekhichi Naa just a day before my marriage. Apart from that, I had won almost all film awards for the year 2007 for the same movie.”
“My best memory of singing, back in Odisha was while I recorded for my dad for the movie Pahili Rajja which became a musical blockbuster. The success factor was mostly due to the richness of culture that was embedded by my dad in the music. I can proudly vouch for the fact that these songs are also available on Smule karaoke and are very popular with my fellow singers and listeners.”
An end to playback career in 2010
“My marriage and a subsequent move out of the country halted my prospectus to pursue a career as a singer. I had to move out of India but music always remained my prime focus and I used to sing in all community functions while I lived for a short period in Canada and Qatar.”
How does Smule become a part of your life?
” It was a good friend who suggested using the Smule app and since then it’s been a real pleasure meeting such gifted singers out here and getting to learn from them. Getting an opportunity to improve and reinvent my own self every day is what I love about the Smule app.
I had a very conventional approach to singing when I joined Smule, but having met few people out here just made me sit and realize how music can be different and innovative.”
“I would be glad to give some credit for making me try new styles of singing (she calls it my non-conventional singing) to a very dear friend and singing partner Mr. Waqar Ahmed (Smule id Last Vampire Down). He is a mentor for more than 2 years now. He definitely has been my virtual Guru and shall have lasting impressions on me forever. This journey in Smule has given me yet another family which resulted in the creation of the verified Odia Smule community OdiaSwara. They are a bunch of talented Odia singers who thought of creating something here on Smule so that our language and music are recognized globally. That gave rise to Odia_Swara. A group of like-minded people namely, Sukruti Mohanty, Julan, Nirash, Jugal Karan, Prasanna, Ipsita Abhilash, Rhitul, and Jyoti; we brain-stormed this concept and today we are so glad to say that Smule gave life to our vision. Thanks to Prasad Mcoy.”
Your take on the Odia music industry since you left:
Presently Odia industry is coming up with really good singers and good music yet it’s a long way for the industry as a whole to come up to a certain benchmark in comparison to the South India music industry or Bollywood / Tollywood for that case. People are scared to take risks and create magic using their own language as lyrics and pouring that cultural essence into the music. Currently, there is a kind of a hotch-potch approach with Hindi and English words in Odia songs. It is as if the Odia language has no words. But we have such gifted singers in the industry like Ira Mohanty, Humane Sagar (both of whom are my all-time favorites). The other singers are Diptirekha, Asima Panda who are doing a fabulous job as well.”
Going back to the roots, we had such gems of songs created by singers like Shri Akshay Mohanty and Pranab Patnaik. Those are such incredible compositions; our prime motive in creating Odia_Swara was to get these karaokes back into mainstream Smule audience. The super quirky technical team is doing the best job possible in retrieving old and melodious Odia tracks. We at Odia_swara have been instrumental in creating long-lost tracks of our folk songs like Rajja and Kumar Purnima, which are festivals native to Odisha. This in itself is such a major feat we have achieved through Odia Smule’s community.”
What is your advice to youngsters on music careers inside the state?
“While I was growing up, I never saw music as a lucrative enough career financially; I opted to take an MBA degree and join the corporate sector. But now things have changed so much and this is such a wonderful change and this has definitely boosted singers from all sections of society to get into a full-fledged singing career.”
Since the past two and half years, Smule has been a heartfelt journey where I have met people good and bad, forged lifelong relationships, and carved a path for myself where I have actually invented myself and have developed into a singer with a different dimension to my singing.”
Awards are given to Sulagna for her singing
Odia State awards for best playback singing
Banichitra award for best singer
Tarang cine award for best playback singer
Without delay let us listen to this one kind of project Sulagna is proudly present for our audience. Amazing reproduction of an Epic produced and directed by her dad. Go to 27.44 in the track to listen to Sulagna singing.
END NOTES
This is what we noticed when we visit this state and write about a singer representing the state; the singers of this state talk about how much of a unique culture and history is associated with this state. It is youngsters from the state who can help preserve their own language and culture. We are so glad that along with Sulagna we are able to bring our other friends associated with the Odia_swara group. This is a true tribute to all those good singers from Odisha Smule, who constantly collaborate and make an environment of friendship and happiness.
We leave here all with a beautiful song sung by Sulagna for a Odia movie playback.
References:
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2010/dec/10/music-is-not-a-profession-its-my-passion-209646.html (References therein)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3602461/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr15
