Starry Start

The notes from a keyboard reached the ears of Washington settled Suresh Raj and when he went to investigate, what he saw left him completely baffled. It was his two-year-old daughter Shilpa at the keys and what was surprising was that the notes were not some random music made by childish hands, but mimicking the music playing on the telly. Realisation dawned on Suresh that here was a child who had a rare affinity for music and he soon enrolled Shilpa in music classes. At the age of 10, Shilpa started attending Carnatic classes, graduating to Hindustani at 12 and Western classes at 14.

Her first public performance was at 10. She recalls, “It was a family cruise and the very first time I sang in public.”

Later, Shilpa went to the University of Maryland and graduated in Media and Communication and minored in entrepreneurship; during the years, performances were less. Now, after completing her course in the US, the pretty singer has given wings to a long-held dream — of singing for a Mollywood film in not one but five languages. A huge challenge, no doubt! Shilpa has crooned two songs for the V.K. Prakash film Pranaa in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit.

Born and brought up in the US, it was obviously a tall order for Shilpa, but she has another talent — a knack of picking up languages really fast. In fact, she surprised her tutors who taught her the lyrics in four languages. Shilpa says, “It was challenging but not that difficult. Once I had someone spell out the lyrics, it was easy to grasp. Actually, I was not expecting to sing in Sanskrit and the lyrics were lengthy, but I managed.”

The recording for the different languages was done multiple times in a day and for Shilpa Telugu was the most difficult. “My vocal training came to my aid here,” she informs.

Incidentally, the songs from Pranaa are not Shilpa's first tryst with Mollywood. She has sung the hugely popular song ‘Sharadambaram’ from Ennu Ninte Moideen, which was produced by her father. The lyrics of Sharadambaram are not by any length easy and Shilpa admits that though she knows Malayalam, she found the lyrics a challenge.

She did not want to disrupt her education which is why she wasn’t heard much after Ennu Ninte Moideen. Now that the studies are finished, Shilpa not only wants to sing but act too. She has attended the New York Film Academy where she underwent professional training in film acting. She definitely has the looks for it. Her dad Suresh, however, chooses to reveal a secret, “Shilpa has acted in a minor role in Wonder Woman 2 which she secured after an audition. She loves to act and her dream is to act in Bollywood.”