Crooning for Kannada

A beautifully haunting and captivating melody has taken the Internet by storm. And the voice behind this enthralling number has been bombarded with compliments ever since the tune came out.

Meet Sparsha RK, the singer who has crooned Neene, a Kannada song that celebrates dance and love. The number is also out in Telugu and Tamil as Neeve and Neeye, respectively.

Talking about her tryst with the song, Sparsha says, “Gomtesh Upadhye (the director) is a close friend, so I knew about the project, but I wasn’t involved in it. I was actually thinking that it would be nice if I got to sing the song. Luckily, Gomtesh reached out to me and asked me to sing it. I agreed.”

Sparsha’s musical journey began when she was  five. This songstress, who’s done her MSc in microbiology, has been singing for 20 years now. “I was a semi-finalist in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and runner-up in Ede Thumbi Haaduvenu. I also won the Golden Voice, a show conducted by a radio station. My first song in the industry was for a film called Jeetu. Post that, I lent my voice to movies like Lucia, Bahuparaak and Godhi Banna Saadharana Mykattu,” she shares.

For a Kannada song, the number of views Neene has garnered (more than 3 lakh) is pretty impressive. But it is still lesser than the Tamil and Telugu views. Reacting to this, Sparsha says, “The Telugu and Tamil industries have been consistent for a long time now. Also, the Telugu industry has a big reach. I feel there is a slight hesitation in the Kannada industry and audience when it comes to accepting new things. But the good thing is a wave of change is being seen and if we continue to release good quality songs, the viewership will increase. We’ve had so many people telling us that the Kannada version is the best.”

This talented crooner also has another trait to her — she’s an absolutely great mimic. She recently posted a video impersonating singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Adnan Sami. “I did it for fun and didn’t really think I was a good mimic. But surprisingly, people have liked it. I will probably put up more videos,” she says.