MUMBAI: Who can ever forget the voice that played as Priyanka Chopra walked the ramp in the award-winning movie Fashion. Shruti Pathak, in a span of just eight years, has been a voice behind many beautiful actresses ranging from Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra to the newest entry in Bollywood Disha Patani. Her latest song, Soniye from Baaghi 2, has received a lot of appreciation.

The songstress shares her journey, “I belong to Ahmedabad and was initiated to different kinds of music by my father at an early age. I started learning classical music and have been learning for many years. Even today in Mumbai, I continue learning music. Later I moved to Mumbai did a lot of independent music, jingles.  That time was an era of remixes, so I did a lot of remixes when I came here. My first break in movies came for Mar Javan in Fashion. I can’t thank Salim Sulaiman for my tailor-made song.”

Despite being trained in Classical music, she never made a conscious choice of being a classical performer or a playback singer, and here is the reason, “I just wanted to sing. And more importantly, wanted music to be a part of my life always.”

Since then, she has crooned songs for many actresses, music directors. What people don’t know about her much is that she writes songs too, “I have written songs like Payalia (Dev D) and Shubharambh (Kai Po Che). Incidentally, both the songs are for Amit Trivedi. Just as music is a part of my life, I want writing also to be a part of my life.”

She is happy to have sung for Disha, but she says the singers don’t quite know who they are singing for, “Initially the singers would be briefed who they are singing for, what is the situation, which movie and all, but now the process is different. We just go and record the songs with our eyes shut, trusting the instinct and vision of our directors. You just become the whole song.”

There is a current talk about female singers raising voice about the little scope for them to have solo numbers, Shruti speaks about the same, “Well, I can’t crib about it, as from the beginning of my career I have had many solo numbers, be it Mar Java, Rasiya (Kurbaan). But yes, I agree, that last two years, the portions for female singers in a song has decreased.”

Apart from giving playback to movies, the singer also writes her songs and is doing a lot of interesting covers. She also speaks about the current trend of “covers “and “remixes”, “I understand the commercial angle that music labels or production houses think about. But honestly, anything overdone loses its charm. Some of them are good, like say Tamma Tamma, but recreating every song is disheartening.”