2023 has started on a musical high with singer Nikita Gandhi on a multi-city tour in India. And she is not alone ! She will be joined by other great artists such as Armaan Malik, Farhan Akhtar and Naezy as well. The tour kickstarted from her hometown Kolkata and will end in Goa. Nikita Gandhi is known for giving hits like Qafirana, Burj Khalifa, Raabta and Jugnu. We, at Jay Ho ! The Jay Kumar Show were lucky to sit with Nikita Gandhi who took time out of her busy schedule and opened up on her tour, music and her plans regarding the upcoming album in 2023.
Recently, in an interview, Nikhita spoke about 2 tours she is doing, one is Yaari Jam Fest and the other one is with singer Armaan Malik, which they both kickstarted in Indore. They have sung the theme song of Yaari Jam too. Talking about her New Year, she said, “My new year began with a show on January 5 in Jiaganj, outside Kolkata, which is also Arijit Singh’s hometown. It was pretty incredible and one of the most massive shows that I have ever done. What a fabulous and super note to start the year on !”. She also expressed her anticipation for the whole month of January as it is packed with many public shows.
Explaining the significance of starting her tour in Kolkata, Nikita spoke at length about music and Kolkata shared a symbiotic relationship. She explained how every Kolkatan kid either learns music and dance or is related to them in some way. “It is a very integral part of our culture. I learnt Hindustani music and Odissi as a kid.” Moreover, Kolkata has many avenues to showcase talent and although she never expected music to be her profession, her life was always filled with music and dance right from her college days, when she was part of a band in both and college. “ Now it has become my profession and I am overjoyed to do this for a living.”
She is also very upbeat on the current changes in the music industry, notably the detachment of music from films. This detachment has led to the emergence of several artists and not just playback singing. This change is making music more like how it is in the West. “You tell your own story and have your own music. It is not confined to any specific movie. It’s great that musicians have their own narrative now”.
Talking about her most cherished experience of working on a song, Nikhita mentioned that the song Kafirana from the movie Kedarnath (2018) was really high on that list and called it one of her” favorite recorded songs”. We can only agree with her as the song was noted for its beautiful composition. She also mentioned her fondness for the song Ghar from When Harry Met Sejal (2017), which expressed a story meaningfully according to her.
One exciting and scary moment (in Nikita’s opinion) was during the recording of Raabta, which was her first song. “I wasn’t even living in Mumbai back then. I had sung two-three drafts of it because they kept changing the arrangement”. She revealed how the composer Pritamda called her when she was in Kolkata and asked her to come to Mumbai for a week while they tweaked the song further. ‘Can you come here and stay here till the song releases?’Pritam da had said. So Nikita stayed with her friend and she revealed how she had zero expectations from that song because she was new and had never sung for Bollywood. But when the song released, “it was a defining moment for me. It was also the moment when I thought maybe I should move to Mumbai.”
In the coming days, Nikhita has lined up some exciting playbacks, songs and singles to be released. ‘I will be dropping a single next month”. She is all set to finish her album, which has been in the works since the lockdown, and she mentioned how finishing that album was her priority. We, at Jay Ho ! The Jay Kumar Show, wish her the very best for her tour and her album release and are looking forward to her music, as are our audience as well.
