Diva means divine goddess of singing, says Pritha Roy while praising her daughter who has sung Bawla sa sapna in Saket Chaudhary’s Shaadi ke Side Effects. As the film revolves around the life of a young married couple, Diva gets an opportunity to lend her voice to one of the tracks.
“All thanks to Pritam Da,” says Pritha. “Pritam heard a song by my daughter and decided to give her a song in the film.” Interestingly, Pritha and her husband Rajesh Roy are also a part of the music industry. “We never thought Diva would come so early in the music industry. But one of our friends recorded Diva’s voice and made Pritam listen to it. He liked Diva’s voice and gave her a song,” says Pritha.
Sharing how Diva got inclined towards singing, Pritha says, “Diva was two years old when she showed her inclination towards singing. She used to listen when Rajesh and I rehearsed music together at home. She tried to sing in her own childish way. You cannot expect a two-year-old to sing properly but whatever she tried to copy had a melody,” says Pritha, who considers Diva a child prodigy, blessed with good musical voice.
Pritha believes in her daughter’s skills and for this reason she never assigned a music tutor for her. “We haven’t started her formal training now,” says Pritha. Suddenly, Diva interrupts, “But I am learning piano and I enjoy it.” A talkative girl, Diva herself mentions about the songs she is in love with. “I like Ban ke titli dil uda, Chhammak chhalo and Zehanaseeb.”
Ask her how the experience of recording a song in studio was, Diva says, “I felt good and was not scared at all.”
But her mother gives a totally different picture about the first day of the recording. “Diva is very moody. On the recording day she was not willing to sing. There were not enough modulations in her voice as the song demanded. So, we had to bribe her with chocolate because she is very fond of it. And things, thereafter, became really easy for us,” says Pritha.
Childlike simplicity, is a crucial part of Diva’s identity. She has one Bollywood song to her credit but she is fond of dancing. “I want to be dancer. I am learning Odissi and western dance along with my piano classes,” she says innocently. Quiz her about singing and she politely replies, “I don’t want to work in Bollywood.”
Well, only time will tell.
