Bengal ki aawaz suno

Before reading anything about Anweshaa Dattagupta aka Anwesshaa, better hear her out first. Her flawless rendition of Malayalam won’t let you believe it is a Bengali girl behind the voice. Kolkata’s reality-star turned professional singer is making her debut in Mollywood, which had embraced another singing talent from her home state, Shreya Ghoshal.

Not a syllable falls out of place in the female part of the duet Minnaminungu... in the upcoming film Theeram, which also marks the acting first of the youngest Ratheesh kid, Pranav Ratheesh.

However, the film song is not the first one Anweshaa had sung in Malayalam. Two years ago, she had colloborated with composer Afzal Yusuf, music director of Theeram, for a melodious album. When he got on board for the movie, Afzal lost no time in drafting Anweshaa in. Anweshaa did her homework to excel in the language. “I am a big fan of South Indian languages, and Malayalam is the toughest of it all. I took up the challenge. Once this assignment came, I surfed the internet, picked as many Malayalam songs I came across to get myself trained in the language,” she rewinds.

Afzal’s soulful melody helped in keeping her relaxed all through the recording phase that happened in Mumbai. “Recording, these days, is not like how the way it was many years before. It does not take weeks or months, but the task remains tough. Learning, drafting and execution happen so quickly. The melody part was strong enough to divert my mind from becoming tensed,” says Anweshaa.

The singer, who sung a solo, was taken by surprise when the audio jukebox was out on YouTube. It was a duet. The male portion is by Najim Arshad. Anweshaa is overwhelmed by joy and pride, for the movie also has both Shreya and Anweshaa on the singing credits. “She was a judge when I was a reality show contestant. Together we appeared for television shows later. We sung to the music of Rahman sir for the Bollywood movie Raanjhanaa (Banarasiya....) She has made our community so proud. It’s beyond comments.”

Having sung in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, Marathi is a language she has just started picking up. Though she has not watched a movie in Malayalam so far, she hopes Theeram would be the first she may watch. Even though she has taken music seriously, Anweshaa has never neglected her studies and pursues her BBA at Amity University in Kolkata.