MUMBAI: 'Jiya' singer Neeti Mohan, recently on Father’s Day, released the single 'Papa Hain Na'. The single talks about a father-daughter relationship and the song features Mohan and her father. The lyrics of the song are penned by Sameer Anjaan and music is produced and composed by Shamir Tandon. 

“When the producers told me about featuring my father, I was unsure if he would be comfortable facing the camera. I even told them that they would need to be patient with him as he might not get things in the first go. But to my surprise he was way too good; he was actually giving ideas and had the right expressions,” revealed Mohan. 

She revealed that the lyrics of the song made her emotional while recording. Mohan said that her father is truly the emotional anchor in her life and has played an instrumental role in shaping her musical career. He was the one who encouraged her to turn her hobby, music, into a career. “It was very difficult for someone like me to make a career in music as we come from a middle class family. But there was not even a day he doubted my abilities,” she added.                                                                           

Mohan was keen on learning music since her childhood. As a child, she would visit the Iskcon Temple where many foreigners wearing Indian attire would sing ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ with dholaks. This fascinated her. “They had small dholaks for kids so I would wear my mother’s saree and play the dholak and sing along,” she reminisced. Although Mohan was born in Delhi, she attended Birla Pilani High School in Rajasthan. It was her father’s decision to send her to the boarding school so that she could be independent. 

Her father believes that participating in extracurricular activities helps in developing an all round personality. “Participating in these activities while living in big cities becomes a little difficult as half the time is spent travelling, so he thought this was a better idea,” revealed Mohan. While in boarding school, Mohan participated in many extracurricular activities, and her grades got better. This is probably why she pushes her friends to send their children to boarding schools as it makes them independent and they learn to follow their hearts. Mohan even developed an interest in adventure sports like camping, trekking. 

Mohan recently crooned for a couple of songs- ‘Khoya Hain’ and ‘Manohari’ for the film ‘Bahubaali’. The music of the film is composed by MM Kreem and the lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir.