MUMBAI: The latest singer to take the independent route is Shalmali Kholgade. The 'Pareshaan' hitmaker will be releasing her first single 'Aye'.

The multi-talented singer has not just acted and sung for her first independent project, but she has also composed and directed it. Confirming the same the ‘Balam Pichkari’ singer says, “When I planned to do something of my own I went straight into the fifth gear. I thought of directing it too.”

‘Aye’ expresses the feeling that most of us have, but do not express - the need to live life on one’s own terms. On not being told the rights and the wrongs. ‘Aye’ brings about a strong point of one having all the rights of living life on his/her terms. “The single also talks about gender equality. By gender equality, I just do not mean equal opportunities for women but also men. Men are obliged to do a lot of things that they might not want to do. One should have the right to choose.”

‘Aye’ is a trap song, a genre that is close to Kholgade. “I enjoy trap, a lot. I have heard a lot of Rihanna and Beyonce and I am inspired by them.”

Though, the ‘Mohabbat Buri Bimari’ singer has done everything from production to acting for her debut single, she gave the responsibility of lyrics, to her Facebook acquaintance and now the lyricist of her upcoming single, Parag Agarwal. “He wrote my songs for ‘MTV Angels of Rock’ and now he is a part of my first single too.”

On having essayed all the other roles for ‘Aye’ the singer says, “I enjoyed the process so much. I learned a lot, from the planning stage to the project going on floors. “

She further adds, “The entire project was on my budget. So, I made sure that we do not exceed the budget. So, we shot the entire video in eight to nine hours. People usually find it surprising when they learn about the time we took to shoot the entire video, but we had planned it so well that execution became easy.”

At one point doing all the jobs did get tough for Kholgade, but she managed to pull it off. “We shot the scenes that did not have me in first. But, when it was my turn to face the camera I got a bit nervous. There was also little frustration because we were running out of time. This is when my manager stepped in and asked me to get a hold on things.”

At the end of the day, the singer was 80 per cent satisfied with the end product, but not 100. The 100 per cent result came on the edit table. “I was thrilled to see what I had on the editing table.”

The final video was made available to Kholdage in April 2016, but she waited for the right time to release it. “When it’s your first project you have certain inhibitions. I wanted to be sure before releasing. Now, I feel its time.”

Lastly, the singer adds, “I think that future is in independent music. The fact that the artists are doing albums and independent songs shows that the future is there. I think even Bollywood songs will have independent music eventually.”

Also Read: Shalmali Kholgade awaits "right label" for debut single

‘Aye’ will release on 9 January 2017 on the singer's YouTube channel Shalmali Kholgade Official.