‘AR Rahman took my music to the light’

Suchismita Das says she got her first break after AR Rahman collaborated with her for Jagao Mere Des Ko (Coke Studio, season 3)

An ardent follower of lord Shiva, vocalist, lyricist and composer Suchismita Das always wanted to make a song on him. Three years ago, in 2019, she finally started working on it but then COVID-19 took over and the song got pushed back. However, this Shivaratri (March 1), Das released the song. Titled Damaru, it features her signature music, Hindustani classical but here, it is blended with EDM, courtesy Grammy Award-winning music composer Ricky Kej.

"I am an Indian classical vocalist. It is our heritage and my aim is to carry it forward. I am also a huge fan of EDM and feel that it blends very well with classical music," shares Das, 32. The song also has an element of modern hip-hop in the form of a rap. "I composed the tune first and then wrote the lyrics. While putting the words to the tune, I felt that it should be a description of lord Shiva and that's when I thought that adding a rap would be a wise idea as it would make it more massy but finding a rapper in Los Angeles who would write on spirituality and Shiva was challenging," shares Das, who moved to United States in 2020 after she was married. Thankfully, she found rapper Maya Miko.

Talking about the collaboration with Kej, Das shares that they worked for the first time together a couple of years ago when he had asked her to sing a song in his album, Shanti Samsara (2015). "It was then that we decided to collaborate again and then we finally did on Damaru," she says, adding, "I sent the song to Ricky and he added the EDM beat, and did the whole soundscaping."

Although today she has a handful of projects to her credit, including singing Desi Romance (Shaadi Ke Side Effects), doing background scoring for Chandni Chowk to China, sound designing for Ghar More Pardesia (Kalank) and working with Javed Akhtar and Shankar Mahadevan alongside contributing to Hollywood films, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), it was AR Rahman who put the spotlight on her in 2013 when he collaborated with Das for Jagao Mere Des Ko (Coke Studio, season 3).

"I was in Mumbai, trying to get a break when I received a call from AR Rahman saying he wanted to meet me in Chennai. It was after I reached Chennai that I got to know that it is for a collaboration, which will happen at Coke Studio and I will be the lead singer," recalls Das, who originally hails from Kolkata and had moved to Mumbai around 2011-12 to create a mark for herself in the music industry. "By then, I had already co-composed the music for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel while also writing and singing seven tracks for the film, but not many people knew me. With this song, I got my first big break, I was suddenly a discovery... people started taking me seriously as a musician. One can say, he brought me to the light of music," shares Das, who calls herself Rahman's protégé.

So, does he guide her on a regular basis? "Of course! I always send him my compositions and he guides me on how I should compose. In fact, he was the one who had asked me to move to LA but that was years ago and at that point, I couldn't afford to leave everything in Mumbai, all the opportunities here and move there. I can't believe destiny brought me here." When asked if there are challenges as well of being associated with Rahman, Das agrees. "Because you have worked with Rahman, people have high expectations and when you are singing, you have to prove yourself," she concludes with a hope that Rahman will someday ask her to collaborate with him on a Bollywood movie.