Don’t wish to make career in acting: Shekhar

Singer-composer Shekhar Ravjiani has no plans to pursue acting as a career option even though he tried his hand at it in Neerja.

“Immediately after Neerja, a British casting agent offered me to do the first holographic theatre performance in London called ‘Symphony to a Lost Generation’. So I am the only Indian actor to be a part of that,” Shekhar, who is one half of the famous composer duo Vishal-Shekhar, said.

“I shot that. It’s currently being played in the theatres across various cities in Europe. It’s just an exploration. I don’t wish to make a career for myself in acting. I was offered 10 scripts before Neerja, but I worked in Neerja because I loved the script and because I had worked with director Ram Madhvani for ads earlier,” he added.

Shekhar, who has sung some soulful numbers in Hindi movies, also said he never thought of becoming a singer.

“I didn’t start my career through a reality show. I was doing advertising much before ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’. I actually had gone along with a friend of mine who wanted to give audition for ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’, so I was accompanying my friend,” Shekhar said.

“There, my friend said, ‘Why you don’t also give an audition?’ Though I didn’t wish to give the audition, I sang ‘Tu hi re’ and I got selected. Then I called my father who was in London and told him that I had got selected for a show called ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’. “He said, ‘Forget about winning, you should participate to learn’.” That’s how Shekhar’s tryst with professional singing began. “You can say that I became a singer by chance. It all happened. I never planned that I would go into singing or composing. I was a kid at that time and belonged to a business family. Singing was a hobby of mine,” he said. 

Having sung hit tracks like ‘Tujhe bhula diya’, ‘Bin tere’ and ‘Meherbaan’, he believes a singer should try different genres to be versatile. “I feel every singer should be versatile enough to sing in different genres. That’s my personal choice. Some say that if you are trained in a specific genre, then you should sing songs belonging to that only. But I have friends in the industry like Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan, who sing all types of songs,” he said. Shekhar is a coach on the upcoming TV show ‘The Voice India Kids’ along with singers Shaan and Neeti Mohan.

Talking about the show, he said: “The concept of ‘The Voice India Kids’ is very unique. Here it is all about mentoring more than judging.  “Today’s kids are really smart. So, it’s our job to guide them in the right way, Shekhar added. On the singing front, Shekhar’s compositions along with Vishal can next be heard in upcoming film Akira, ‘Banjo’ and Befikre.