I'm bindaas, wild & serious: Neha Bhasin

I’m fun, but I’m not funny,” says singer Neha Bhasin. Bollywood music fans know her as the voice behind the sultry “Kuch Khas Hai” from “Fashion”.
But this Delhi girl, who started singing at nine, hadn’t sung in Hindi till she was 19! “I always thought I was an English rock diva,” she says. She came into the limelight as part of the girl band Viva, but after the band broke up, there was a lull in her career till 2007, when a South Indian song she sang became a hit.Then “Fashion” happened, and now she’s working on her own album and getting back to her first love – rock.
Excerpts from an interview:
Studies? Naah
As a student of Frank Anthony Public School, I wasn’t very good at studies till Class X as I couldn’t understand Maths and Science. But in the higher classes, I started scoring well. I was always very serious about music, though. After school, I wanted to go abroad and study music, and was quite frustrated when my father asked me to go to college since I was too young to be sent abroad alone. So I did Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College. All I used to do in college was sing and dance – I was the Western Music Society secretary and also headed the Western Dance Society.
The Dilli spirit
Surviving is only existing. Delhiites are not survivors, they are fighters. Whenever I tell someone that I’m from Delhi, they say, ‘Dikhta hai’. My no nonsense attitude, having a mind of my own and a good hold on Hindi is what is so Delhi about me. And of course, Delhi people are good looking! But the good thing is that many people in the music industry are either from Delhi or North India.
My bindaas Delhi attitude
I am a dramatic person on stage – from the way I sing and dance to the way I dress. In Viva, I wasn’t myself. Like the Spice Girls, I used to wear the big Dalmatian shoes and the shortest shorts. Viva required us to have a certain image and we were told – you can’t do this, you can’t wear this. People are now getting to see me the way I am. I am a very bindaas, wild and at the same time a very serious person.
I miss Delhi
Even though I’m not a big fan of winters, I love the changes in the weather. I miss the roadside momos. Delhi has a lot of colour, shopping, food and heritage. One thing I like about Delhi, whether it’s good or bad, is that people are pretty much the same. This is what I love about it – that although it’s fast moving, it’s also a little slow and has its own pace.
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