Her time under the sun

'Dum Maro Dum' is a song I simply cannot get out of my head," laughs singer Payal Dev, the lilt in her melodious laughter evident, as she has been brought up on a diet of the 90s chartbusters. "All the songs sung by Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik are my special picks," she adds with a bright smile.

Payal's first public performance happened when she was only eight years old. Since then, she has been tracing winsome notes in her career. She trained in classical music under her mother, and considers her her first guru. Slowly, as she honed her voice and moved to Mumbai at the age of 17 to pursue a career in playback singing, ad-film jingles happened and soon enough, her first movie project, Grand-Masti. "Pretty soon, I recorded two songs and parts in the background score for Satya 2, directed by Ram Gopal Verma," recollects Payal, who has also lent her voice to the famous documentary India's Daughter, for music composer Krsna Solo.

Film-maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali then approached her to sing three songs in Bajirao Mastani. "I knew that Sanjay-sir had heard my voice before Bajirao Mastani. As luck would have it, after a couple of months, I got a call from him and next thing I knew, I was recording the chartbuster 'Ab Tohe Jaane Na Doongi'. It was like a dream come true." Truly a high point in her career. As was singing for a spiel of mainstream commercial Hindi movies, including Kaabil (the famous 'Haseeno Ka Deewana'), 1920 London, Great Grand Masti, Tum Bin 2, Bhoomi, Veerappan and Freaky Ali.

Payal considers India's golden voices Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle as the fountainheads of inspiration in the music world. She has sung several songs in Hindi, Bengali, English and Telugu, and commands ease of diction in all these languages. "But honestly, I like all old songs. I feel I learn so many aspects of singing by humming classics. They are evergreen and inspiring," she confides. Of course, having a versatile voice, her repertoire spans a gamut of genres, including pop, western, jazz, ghazals, hip-hop, rock... "I do have my favourites," she reveals on being prodded. "Like 'Shape of you', 'Despacito', 'Attention'... You know singing a dance track is like sipping an energy drink as it instantly infuses energy into your being." Succinctly put.

Quick to strike a balance between her playback singing and supporting social causes, Payal lent her voice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pan-India initiative, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, when it kicked off a few years ago. It is an involvement that pleases her till date. "I always wanted to be attached with social awareness campaigns as it makes me very happy. It will delight me if my contribution can generate a positive change in the country at even the smallest level," she says earnestly.

Meanwhile, the romantic number 'Nain Phisal Gaye' from Welcome to New York is clambering up the popularity charts. "I am overwhelmed with the praise it has garnered," admits Payal. She is all set to come out with her new single 'Kamli', composed by Raaj Aashoo, and written by Murli Agarwal, and starring popular actor Madalasa in the video. None other than superstar Salman Khan, actor Sonakshi Sinha and music composer duo Sajid-Wajid had tweeted their praise for her earlier single 'Sajna Ve'.

As the singing sensation continues to scale heights, we are all ears.