The success of her pop album Chennai Girl made Anuradha Sriram a familiar face for the Chennai folks.
Later, her songs list extended to the evergreen Indian songs,
Dil Se …Ishq Bina … Ishwar Allah …
Anbentra Mazhayile… Anbe Anbe …Appadi Podu…Lesa Lesa…O Podu …Karuppu than
I know, Many of you have sweetest memories around these songs from the 90’s and 2000’s. Am I right?
Well. We have the singer itself onboard today, the very popular, most humble and the talented Anuradha Sriram. Let’s give a big applause to this well-known Carnatic, Hindustani and Cine Singer when she turns 25 beautiful years in her musical journey.
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Dhanya : What do you think has changed in the Music Industry since you started?
Anuradha Sriram : There have been changes from different sides. Considering that it was a monopoly and very few singers singing for many years, today because of digital platforms, television channels, the number of programs and reality shows it’s become easier for a lot of singers to express their talents to be found on this platform.
Many of the singers able to showcase their talent because of the presence of YouTube and many other technological support. There are more number of people have chances to enter into the industry. In fact, it is a beautiful change. When I started singing 25 years back, it’s quite a monopoly and it is difficult to enter into the industry.
Secondly, the meaning of beautiful singing itself redefined. Nowadays you find that people with very unique voices with the unique singing style also have an opportunity to be part of the popular music industry. Earlier days were like you had to have a solid foundation in music, and have a good range to sing very high notes. All were stereotypical prototypes of what exactly is a good playback singing voice. Today all that has been broken and many individualistic voices with very unique characteristics are finding their ways to the industry.
Also, because of the exposure to world music, more and more ethnic styles are being co-opted for popular music especially in the films. In fact, even for a Rustic movie only trained voices or professional singing was considered in the past. Today for a rural movie, they are hiring folk singers, ethnic singers which is a beautiful change happening in the industry, thereby the picturization seems to become more authentic and powerful.
Dhanya : How do you manage your personal and professional time?
Anuradha Sriram : I think it has much to do with the kind of support that you have at home including everybody at home like your parents, your husband, your mother-in-law, father-in-law and your children. Managing personal and professional time entirely depends on how much support you get from the family. When you get enough support from the family then you are able to assign your time accordingly. Also, it depends on making choices like how much work you want to do and whether you also want to be part of children’s events and your family’s unique happenings…
I think life is all about choosing what you want at the right time. Have contentment with some meaningful work. You don’t have to do all the work and you don’t have to do everything that comes to you so that you can be part of important things in your children’s lives, husband’s life and also be part of the industry. You probably may not reach very very high but it’s OK to have the best of both worlds.
After all, what is life without having a little sacrifice for the happiness of those who live with you because of their support that you are able to do so much! So, I think it is important that you support them enough so that they can realise their dreams. This understanding and compassion will definitely go a long way in helping one balance the professional and the personal side.
Contentment – Sacrifice – Compromise. These are very important values.
Dhanya : Could you please share something special about any one of your favourite song recording?
Anuradha Sriram : Generally, I consider all my song recordings have a big grace, they are all my favourites because I try and do the best that I can, each one is a unique experience. But, of course, some songs are very popular say Appadi Podu.
When music director Vidyasagar and director Dharani call me for the song Appdi Podu, I was just out of my second delivery and I was having some issues with my voice and my voice was not under my control… when I started humming the song I found it very very high. I was wondering how I am going to do this… So, after a tea break when everyone back I had suggested an idea that why don’t we have the song like those yesteryears Bhanumathi kind of cute like low and high notes …why don’t I sing like in a certain stylistic way in the lower Octave and they liked the idea very much, of course, the rest is history! The song really worked by God’s grace.
This is a very important lesson I learnt in my life that in any situation you don’t give up completely because God is put you there for a purpose and God is always with you. So you have to believe in yourself especially when you are not able to do your best and when you in difficult situations when you surrender, the divine works through as always just like what I came through that recording day. Finally, many people asked me, how did you sing both high and low and that became a style later. That was a very enlightening song in my life because I realised that if you surrender then there is nothing that God cannot do!
Dhanya : How important do you think Social Media in a musician’s life?
Anuradha Sriram: Probably in the last 10 years, social media has become very very important. Any corporate houses or any big management who are hiring musicians are all looking at the social profile of a singer before they hire. So I guess your social media presence is very very essential these days.
In many unique ways, if you are talented, you don’t have to wait for someone to give you an opportunity. You can do your own music, you can do music the way you want to do it and you can put it there for people to watch it. If it’s meant to be popular it will be… so you have an opportunity to express yourself and show your talents on the social platform. But, probably I am not as connected to the social media but it probably makes sense for today’s musicians to be well connected.
Dhanya : Being as a loving mother of 2 teenagers what is your message to the younger generations?
Anuradha Sriram : Whatever faith they may be in, they need to realise the importance of connecting to God. They need to realise that they are all the manifestations of the supreme power and if only they can connect to God there is nothing that is impossible because God is all-powerful and all-knowing.
So, it is important that parents help children pray, and connect them to God. Not to fear God, Love God. Make them realise that God is with them all the time so that they will never feel alone. I think this is one of the most important things that children should also lend themselves to their culture and understand how important it is to be connected to God that keeps them protected from every negative thing of this world. This, help them to go ahead positively.
Dhanya : Which is that favourite song that you often want to hear?
Anuradha Sriram : The song Yethanayo Katranaye, written by Saint Sadhu Om (devotee of Ramana Maharshi) composed and sung by Sriram Parthasarathy.