SHABIHA NUR KHATOON
Singer Ash King, who was introduced to film music by the legendary A R Rahman, has had to fine-tune his skills for years before hitting the high note of his career
London-based Hindi playback singer Ash King made his debut with Delhi-6 and his latest number, ‘Baarish’, from Half Girlfriend is ruling the chartbusters. But Ash’s journey was not a cakewalk as he is not that fluent in Hindi. In a telephonic interaction with Orissa POST, he dwelt on his journey in the Hindi film industry, his days of hardship and struggle, and his favourite genre as a vocalist.
Ash was introduced to Hindi films in 2009 by none other than the maestro A R Rahman in the movie Delhi-6. Sharing his excitement of working with A R Rahman, Ash said: “It was a roller-coaster ride for me after Delhi-6 because I had never imagined I would be singing so many Hindi songs. I was introduced to A R Rahman by a friend for a project he was working on at the time. When I first met the maestro, he asked me to sing something instantly. I sang a piece in English. He asked me if I could sing in Hindi and I said, quite honestly, that I couldn’t speak Hindi properly. But he instilled in me a vision to carve out a career in the Hindi film industry.”
“It definitely feels nice when your songs hit the chartbusters. My last song was ‘Alizeh’ from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. For me, it has not been long since my last song was released because I don’t sing many songs. Instead I perform more in live shows and prefer working on my own songs,” the singer added.
Ash’s first live show was held in Bhubaneswar and the singer was overwhelmed by the love and greetings showered on him. Performing before so many people was a dream come true for him.
Although Ash has not taken formal training in music, he has already lent voice to memorable tracks such as ‘I Love You’ from Bodyguard, ‘Te Amo’ from Dum Maaro Dum, ‘Aunty Ji’ from Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and ‘Meherbaan’ from Bang Bang among others.
Asked if he had slowly groomed himself to be a playback singer, Ash said: “Versatility and hard work is the key to a successful musical career. I don’t want to restrict myself to one particular genre or style of music. I want to experience everything and want to create my own style. I want to use that distinctive style in different styles of music. Learning new things with people I work with is a great experience and I always try to adapt to situations. For me it is very important to be versatile.”
Asked what challenges he had faced in his career, the melody maker said: “That I didn’t know Hindi was a major challenge. Sometimes I had to associate with groups that specialised in Indian styles of singing, and while singing with them it took me quite a while to pick up some of the notes.”
“The other problem with me was that I was never an extrovert person and it was difficult for me to grab the attention of those in the industry who would be willing to offer me a big break,” he added.
Ash said he loved singing in different languages and at times faced problems while singing regional songs, as different language have different inflictions. However, he is all praise for lyricists, composers and others in the studio who helped him out.
Informing about his future projects, the singer said: “Recently one Bengali song of mine was released. That apart, two numbers, one Punjabi and one Marathi, are set to release in a couple of months.”
