Usha Uthup on staying away from politics, hunger for acting jobs: ‘I can be a vada-pav wali, bootlegger, servant, I just don’t want to be me’

 

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“For most of the concerts in India we get audiences coming in from all parts of the country. So I make sure to sing a few Hindi songs, some in Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil and this time I have decided to sing some Marathi songs as well. The audience and the song list is paramount to me.”

When asked about how she prepares for live performances, she says, “I say a little prayer and I talk to God as if I am talking to a friend. Then I make note of things I shouldn’t be doing on stage. I make a mental note of how I shouldn’t say the wrong things. When I say that I don’t mean that I should be politically correct. I never anyway want to be controversial and that’s because I believe that politics has anything to do with music. I believe that there is no politics in this. Singers and musicians are the only people who don’t need any elections or anything, we know we are going to win. That’s the music party. It sounds crazy but here’s where you don’t look at cast, colour or creed, no gender, sex or age, there is no barrier at all and that I so beautiful.”

Watch the interview here:

Usha’s love for music started at a very tender age. Opening up bout how she realised that she could sing, she said, “I won’t say we were poor, but we were not very rich. I come from a middle-class family and doing things together as a family was very important. On one such family picnic to Madras (now Chennai), my aunt, who was in the government tourism department, took us out for a treat to a place called Nine Gems. I was always the life of a party, I was very good at mimicking. I was quite a clown. My aunt asked me to sing and I got up and sang with this band, ‘Never know how much I love you…’ It was fun. People didn’t realise that I was standing there in a saree or that I was a south Indian, I was plainly dressed. People just wondered where the voice was emanating from. That’s how it started.”

Just as our conversation with Usha was flowing beautifully, a lovely surprise arrived – a bunch of jasmine gajras! Usha’s eyes sparkled as she eagerly showed us the gajras, and shared a cherished ritual with us. She lovingly showed off her exquisite shrinagar accessories, each one carefully matching her outfit of the day – her dazzling bangles and the custom-made bindis that add a touch of magic to her performances. “Without the flowers in my hair and my sarees, my bindis and bangles, I am not Usha Uthup for many people,” she declares.

With her flowers now resting on her desk and her thoughts refreshed, Usha returned to our conversation, her passion for singing shining brighter than ever. And yet, amidst all the joy that music brings her, Usha confessed to a secret longing – a desire to explore the world of acting.

She says, “I am always asking, shamelessly, to all the producers and directors, ‘please give me a role, I am dying to act’. It is an extension to my music. I always make a mention that please don’t make me Usha Uthup on screen, I want to play different characters. My requests have worked, I have done 2-3 films, one with Amitabh Bachchan, one with Mammootty, where I played his mother. I have also done Saat Khoon Maaf, and worked with Kamal Hassan. So yes, I have had a wonderful time working as somebody else and I can’t have enough. I really want to play meaty roles where I can make a difference to the film. I don’t want to be Usha Uthup, I just want to be somebody else, I can be someone’s grandmother, somebody’s servant, caretaker, vada-pav wali (vada-pav seller) at the end of a road who knows all the gossip or a bootlegger, shoe-polisher, anything, what fun it would be.”