Remixes bridge generation gap, says singer Arpita

Multilingual singer Arpita Chakraborty has her new single which will be releasing soon.

Arpita Chakraborty was introduced to the world of music at a very young age by her mother. Her first stage performance was at the age of five.

Over the years, she developed her skills and made her way into Bollywood. Since then, she has lent her voice for more than 15 languages, including Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi and Bengali.

Arpita spoke to Anila Kurian about her latest song from ‘Total Dhamaal’ starring Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor.

‘Total Dhamaal’ released a couple of weeks ago but your song has been doing the rounds online even before that...

Yes, ‘Paisa Yeh Paisa’ is an iconic song from the 1980s. The makers of the film felt that this song was appropriate for the theme for the movie. I think recreating a yesteryear song is a huge responsibility and I’m glad it was beautifully composed by Gourov and Roshin.

Was it fun working on the song?

I was briefed about the song before I came to the studio. I kept listening to the version by Kishor Da even though I knew that it had to be rendered by me. I was a little intimidated, but as soon as I heard the new version, I started grooving to the new tune. And with a 20-minute recording, we wrapped up the fun session.

There’s a notion that most musicians are only working on remixes these days. What do you have to say about that?

Well, there’s also original music that’s been released. It’s recreating a track that has already been a hit in the past and making it popular for the younger generation. So according to me, remixes are a great way to bridge the generation gap. In the meantime, youngsters can relive what their parents enjoyed in their time too.

You recently said in an interview that you’d love to work on a Bengali song...

Yes, I have already been offered a lot of regional film songs, not just Bangla. I love singing in different languages — it challenges my creativity. I recently sang a Marathi song ‘Ghe Jaguni Tu’ for Mrinal Kulkarni’s romantic-comedy ‘Ti And Ti’.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you have opted to do?

I can’t think of doing anything else apart from music. Having said that, I love to design unique textile products under my own lifestyle accessories brand called ‘The Hookline Design’.

Tell us about your upcoming projects.

My next project will be a single that I am very excited about. I also have a few Bollywood releases lined up for the year.