Ladies special

About a year ago, when music composer Rimi Basu Sinha began work on her new album, she did not expect it to coincide with Women’s Day. But it will. And it also happens to bring together some of the best female singers from the industry from four different generations — Chitra, Usha Mangeshkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sunidhi Chauhan, Richa Sharma, Mahalaxmi Iyyer and Aishwarya.

‘Sakhi: Celebrating Womanhood’ has been conceptualised by Sinha, who claims to be India’s first female music composer. “There are hardly any women in this field in India. Atleast, there is nobody that I know of,” says Sinha, who has been making tunes since she was 10. She couldn’t think of a reason why many women have not ventured into this field.

Love for music
“Composition doesn’t happen all of a sudden. You either have a knack for it or not. Plus it requires all kind of commitments that I guess women can’t always make,” explains Sinha.

While every singer featured has sung one song in the album of nine, the composer herself has also contributed to the voices. “There is one song that everyone is a part of, called ‘Naye sapne…’

The compositions are not preachy or moral, they’re just about women expressing themselves,” says Sinha, who was overwhelmed by the response she received from all the professional artistes when she contacted them. “Nobody knew me and I didn’t know anyone, but they were all very supportive of the idea when I met them. I needed them, they did not need me, yet all of them stood by me.”

Sinha, who originally belongs to Allahabad, came to Mumbai about five years back to make a career out of her love for music. And now with this launch, she is working towards making that happen. “I have composed two songs for a Bollywood film, one will be sung by Shreya Goshal and the other by Sunidhi (Chauhan),” says Sinha, without revealing too much. Meanwhile, she promises that this album is not going to be the only one of its kind. “I want to work on a second and third part as well. The next will be different,” says Sinha.