It is said humility comes before honour. This adage could go well with our ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’ contestant, Shantanu Mukherjee, aka Shaan. After a break down on the sets of JDJ three weeks back, he feels that he has grown as a person and swells with pride for the same. The past decade was a complete roller coaster for the versatile singer. All credits to his unbreakable spirit and family which backs him even during the roughest phase of his life. Shaan talks to Radioandmusic.com about his transition from being a playback singer to a host for music show to a contestant on a reality dance show to now becoming a film star.

Calling me a film star wouldn’t be quite right. I think ‘actor’ is the word. I am doing a movie called ‘Balwinder Singh Famous Hogaya’ which is yet to release.

Hopefully it will be out soon and then maybe acting will also be one of the feathers in my hat. But yes, for more than a couple of months it has just been, ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’* and everything else has taken a back seat. I am enjoying this stint with JDJ but it will probably be the contestant for a reality show. Initially, I just thought I would do a couple of episodes, have some fun but somehow things fell into place and I started getting a lot of appreciation from my the fraternity, family, friends and well-wishers and somehow I am stuck in this show and I don’t know how to get out!  Initially I thought that people might feel that the only reason I took this up was not having enough singing assignments.

But luckily, my dancing received a lot of accolades. Singing comes to me naturally, dancing is completely unnatural and I literally need to command my legs to move. I need to keep abusing my feet to move until it becomes a muscle memory.  Things have now become much easier as compared to a past few weeks but it is still bad. This experience has definitely taught to be perseverant.

Amidst my chaotic schedules, I certainly miss family time. I wouldn’t mind some lone time either. Even in my sleep I try and recollect my dancing steps. This makes me feel sleep deprived. I wish I could rest more. However, I cannot afford to do so since my day is tightly planned. JDJ is eating up a lot of my time. Honestly, every week I feel like leaving the show. But somehow that doesn’t happen. All thanks to this wonderful team that excites and encourages me with new challenges every week.

Once I am out of this show, I will be putting in a lot more effort into my music. My, ‘riyaaz’ has also taken a backseat. Also I have been postponing singing assignments since I can’t do anything else. Being on the national television every week I prefer putting my best foot forward.

Today the industry is looking out for jagged voices which are not very versatile and niche. However, I feel its not wrong to have a niche style since it works well with the audiences, who have become more receptive not accepting changes but also enjoying them. Thus, composers too can experiment freely.

Because frankly, versatility is something that just doesn’t pay anymore. In fact, I feel it helps to have a patented style. For instance, item songs are usually done by Mika and Neeraj Shridhar. Westernised tracks have been sung by Benny Dayal and romantic songs are usually sung by Mohit Chauhan and Arijit Singh.

And I can do all of it if I have to do a three hour show. I can do slow love songs to rock and roll to where’s the party tonight type of songs. Sadly, for today’s singers, they are made to sing the same song over and over again. However, I have had a good inning and belong to a part of a time when versatility was looked upon. So I have managed to get myself a good portfolio which in today’s times may not be possible.

Also in the age of social networking artistes do not have the need to over promote themselves. PR is a regular exercise.  Its just that they get very excited with all the social networking sites and all the attention they get.

You can’t ignore the fact that artists are a lonely and self obsessed tribe, ‘jahan pyaar milta hai, chale jaate hain wahan’. All the fans on the social networking sites interact with them which is obviously exciting. I don’t think the artists marketing themselves. But artists are obsessed with fame and popularity. However, I think meeting people and spending time with them is much healthier than just sending messages.  In fact, the other day someone asked me if I have a profile on SoundCloud and I had no clue. I do not have a profile on Facebook though I have managed to stay on Twitter.

But here comes another twist.  For the first one year, my wife handled my twitter account since I just feel that these things are too much of a headache to maintain. I cannot stay away from Twitter for a long time. Even if I have nothing to say I need to Tweet something thus I prefer staying away from all this. I don’t even have a PR agency. People keep asking me “Are you from this day and age?” I just find these things as a sort of added pressure, hence I avoid it.

I am looking forward to my life after Jhalak as I shall be co-composing with Gaurav Dasgupta, for the film Disco Valley.  Nevertheless, Dasgupta has been extremely understanding and patient. The music is far from mainstream. It is trendy, trance and electronic.

It is basically a war of DJs kind of film, so of course there is a lot of music. We had a lot of different voices, jagged.  Because, if you have a mainstream film with a leading actor, and if you happen to use a voice that doesn’t complement the actor, then it only diminishes his persona. Since this is an off-beat film with no big stars, we don’t have filmy songs in it.  Most of it is background scores.

We are also working on some other films but those are too early to talk about. In a nutshell my future projects will have me dabbling with new sound. Between me and Gaurav, we manage to cover a lot of genres. My father was a wonderful composer and I have some marvelous compositions that are influenced by my father’s work. Those will be more on the semi classical, Indie ethos kind of music. Gaurav is fantastic with all the new age, techno sort of music. So I feel that we kind of make a good combination.

(Radioandmusic.com has been constantly trying to innovate and provide readers with the best information about the goings-on in the industry. We are happy to introduce the special section titled 'Musical Rendezvous'. The objective: delve deeper into the minds of senior professionals from the radio and music industries, to understand trends and developments and get other insights about the way forward. A big ‘thank you’ to all for supporting this endeavour- giving our reporters time and knowledge- so we can share it with our readers).