‘I'm just getting started’, says actress-singer Monica Dogra

Monica reveals it was no surprise that she took to music as her means of self-expression, which she believes is a “sort of blessing and a curse.” She says, “My earliest memories are of me singing, staging my own plays, and making up dances. I always knew what I wanted to do.” It is with this intention that she started Shaa’ir and Func with Randolph Correia in 2005. However, she hates that her music is being branded to a genre. She states, “I would say that Shaa’ir and Func is largely experimental dance music. Many people call us Electro-rock. I like to call it conscious dance music. We don’t like to be limited or boxed in by genres though.” After nine years of being in the music scene, Monica belives she is finally getting comfortable. She says, “I’m at a great juncture in my career where I don’t feel pressurised to be anything or do anything just to be it or do it. I feel like I’ve arrived in a way, and if I’m going to put out more art — it will be a step forward, and something bigger than what I’ve already done.”

We ask her about one memorable moment with Shaa’ir and Func and she recalls her performance at the Oya Festival in Norway a fear years ago. She says, “We had a room full of people who had no idea who we were, just giving us love and acceptance, and a perfect party vibe. I love that music can traverse language and connect people. That is a certain kind of magic that is incomparable.” Another unforgettable moment comes from the city of Mumbai. She says, “Once I jumped off the stage into the crowd and crowd-surfed for the first time.... It was one of those moments where I trusted. In India, as a woman, I feel like I always have to have my fists up in defense, and my ears perked for when the next intruder might try to grab at me but my fans are the new India, and there, I am safe.”

The actress who was seen in Dhobi Ghat, David will also be seen in Fireflies, and is in the middle of shooting her fourth film. She says, “I’ve always been an actor and I will always be an actor. I see myself as an expressionist. I enjoy all mediums of creativity....and they are all actually interwoven and inseparable. Apart from these movies, I’ve signed on three more. So, I’d say that I’m just getting started!”