Naveen Sajju debuts as playback singer

Mysore-based orchestra singer Naveen Sajju is all set to make his debut as a playback singer in Sandalwood. “I never dreamt of singing for films. Director Pawan Kumar and music director Poornachandra Tejaswi, who saw me perform as part of an orchestra, asked me to sing a song for the movie Lucia.”
Naveen says there are several differences between orchestra and playback singing. “There are plenty of challenges in playback singing.A playback singer needs to have the capacity to do voice modulations, have a good command over language and vast knowledge in music. But in orchestra singing, we just try to ape established singers,” he says, adding, “I had no idea about playback singing. I had to go through six gruelling months of training to sing the song. At one time, I even thought of quitting. Fortunately, Pawan convinced me to continue and I managed to sing three songs for the film,” he says.
Naveen has also worked with popular Kannada director Yogaraj Bhat for one of the songs on the film. “I learnt a lot from him. It was he who told me to develop good command over the language to emerge as a successful playback singer,” he says.
The singer, who is currently pursuing his diploma in Hindustani music at a music varsity in Mysore, hasn’t stopped performing at orchestra concerts. “People love my singing. I don’t want them to miss me, so I continue to give live performances whenever I am free. I especially love to sing C Ashwath’s songs,” he says. Naveen adds that he prefers singing high-pitch songs rather than melodies. “My strength lies in high-pitch songs, which require lot of vocal effort,” he says.