Nepotism exists, but one needs talent to sustain: Shweta Mohan

“However, I believe that it is the right time to release the song as the audience have started accepting to independent singles,” she begins. The daughter of veteran singer Sujatha Mohan, also tells us how the dearth of songs in films have contributed to the growth of indie albums and songs. 

“Music has always been a major stressbuster for people. There used to be a time when there were 12 songs in a film. Now, it has come down to two or even no songs. So, people are taking to indie music to listen to songs,” she adds. 

What inspired her to come up with Yaavum Enad hey ? “We started working on this four years ago and I should thank my team for delivering a brilliant output. The music is composed by Bennett Roland, my long-time friend and the lyrics are penned by Madhan Karky. 

I initially approached director Rajiv Menon, who put me on to his assistant Shruthi Nandagopal, who directed this single. Karky was selfless and helped us without any expectations. We started off with a live recording in the same studio in different booths and it was exciting,” she elaborates. 

The video produced by Shweta also features her in the lead and she says with a smile, “Shruthi asked me to emote and not to stay stiff. We shot in a reserve forest near Kochi. The theme of the song is about how care can multiply in different levels. We must be selfish about things around us so that we could care about them all.” The single was launched by AR Rahman. 

“I asked him if he could launch my debut album, and all he asked me was the date of launch. I couldn’t have asked for more,” she says. However, her mother Sujatha was the goto-person, before beginning the work on the single. 

“My mother is the best judge. She is never biased. When she gave me a positive feedback, I was very happy. Apart from that, my husband has been very supportive as well,” says Shweta. While the topic of nepotism has been touched upon in the movie industry, we ask her if it works in the music industry too. 

“There could be nepotism in the music industry, but only the talented sustains, the rest falls,” she tells us. Shweta, who has been recording several songs across movie industries, has also begun the pre-production work of her next independent single. “I will be doing a lot of them from now on. Wait and watch,” she finishes.