The School Song

But did her school ever encourage her to sing? The surprise answer is 8216;no8217;. 8216;8216;I never sang in school, except for once at...

Playback singer
Sunidhi Chauhan at
Savitri Vasant School, Mumbai

8216;8216;THREE years ago, I used to be so nervous when I had to enter the principal8217;s cabin, but today I am treated like a VIP,8217;8217; says Sunidhi Chauhan, awe and glee fighting for prominence in her voice. One of Bollywood8217;s youngest 8212; and most promising 8212; playback singers, she is half-an-hour late for the appointment, but as she steps out of the autorickshaw and mumbles something about an accident and a car in a garage, it8217;s clear that this is not about a starry nakhra.

The same down-to-earthness carries over as Sunidhi flings out an arm to introduce her school: Savithri Vasant High School, Santa Cruz. Though it8217;s a far cry from the typical South Mumbai starkid school, it8217;s clear that for Sunidhi, 19 8212; never mind if her innumerable hits in Mast, Fiza, Mission Kashmir, Jungle make it seem as if she8217;s been around forever 8212; school is where her heart is.

But did her school ever encourage her to sing? The surprise answer is 8216;no8217;. 8216;8216;I never sang in school, except for once at an annual function,8217;8217; says Sunidhi. 8216;8216;People used to urge me to participate, but I was already a professional, how could I compete with amateurs? It was only right to let others come up.8217;8217;

That8217;s right, Sunidhi8217;s career is already nine years old: Her first song featured in a film called Shastra in 1993, when she was still in school. But fame had come calling much earlier, when she took part in Meri Awaz Suno, a talent-hunt television show. 8216;8216;It happened like this 8212; I was always crazy about Lata Mangeshkar, I always sang her songs at stage-shows, and when I learnt she would be handing over the trophy to the contest winner, I decided to take part,8217;8217; says Sunidhi. 8216;8216;As luck would have it, I got through the quarters, the semi-finals and then the finals. And when I finally saw Lataji before me, my dream came true. That was the most memorable day of my life.8217;8217;

It probably made for the most memorable day of her principal Manisha Soni8217;s life when she saw Sunidhi among her class VIII students. Though the girl repeated the class, Soni is unabashed in her admiration: 8216;8216;I was thrilled when I knew I would be teaching her, since she was already famous through Meri Awaz Suno.8217;8217;

Making her way to her old classroom, Sunidhi ruminates, 8216;8216;I wish I were back in school. There were just eight students in my class, so we really bonded. I loved civics, history and geography, but in subjects like algebra, I never got more than four marks!8217;8217;

Her flop show in school didn8217;t particularly bother the folks at home, who had immense faith in her talent. Success came early, but Sunidhi missed out on all the things that teenagers do. 8216;8216;I sometimes wish I was a normal 19-year-old, worried only about homework. I am constantly tense about tomorrow8217;s song,8217;8217; she broods. 8216;8216;Sometimes, I think it would an ordinary job, a fixed salary, not too many ambitions, would have been much better.8217;8217;

But the Leonine side to Sunidhi surfaces immediately, and she growls, 8216;8216;I know I am a very strong woman, sorry, girl. I know what I have to do and where I8217;m going. I believe talent and luck go hand-in-hand.8217;8217;