With her roots firmly embedded in music since birth, Indian classical and bollywood playback singer Runa Rizvi has been an exponent of classical, ghazal, thumri, folk and sufi styles of singing. Having also rendered some popular tracks in bollywood, the singer has now extended her repertoire by making her debut as music director with the upcoming film ‘Myoho’.

Being the daughter of renowned Indian singers Rajkumar and Indrani Rizvi, the songstress has always been a performer experimenting with sounds. Not having done much of mainstream playback singing, her highlight in bollywood was when she rendered the track ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ for maestro AR Rahman. Bagging her first project as composer, Rizvi claims singing is her first love though she would love to explore such opportunities in the future as well.

Speaking with Radioandmusic.com about her first project as composer, Rizvi says, “Music is in my blood and I love experimenting and listening to different kinds of music. Composing for this film was just an experience and an experiment to do something different and stretch my capacities, I took the challenge and learnt a lot from it. This is just an extension of what I have already been doing. I’m still a singer and will continue to render for other music directors.”

Comprising of six tracks composed by Rizvi, the lyrics have been penned by Rajesh Johri and rendered by a mix of singers including Shahid Mallya, Master Salim, Pradeep Gandharv, Neha Rizvi and Runa Rizvi herself.  The tracks encompass various genres with ‘Saathiya’ being the romantic number, ‘Naag Lapete’ bringing forth a folk feel, ‘Vande Mataram’ is the patriotic track, ‘Haq Ali da’ features a sufi tinge and ‘Boyega’ incorporating a raw Indian feel.

Directed and written by documentary film maker Ranjan Shandilya, the film symbolizes the mystic law-‘Myoho’ that states ‘we are the creators of our own destiny’, focusing on what goes around comes around. It is produced by Ranjan Shandilya Productions Pvt Ltd and stars Kanwaljeet Singh,Raj Singh Chaudhary, Parul Chauhan, Yashpal Sharma and Sanjay Tripathi in pivotal roles. The film is slated to release on 14 December 2012.

Elaborating on the music she states, “Before I signed the film, I actually read the entire script because I wanted to understand the feel of the film. I really liked the story of Myoho which is based on Karma. Originally the film was not supposedto have any music, it was just to be a background score. But the director wanted particular tracks of different genres. One was a nautanki type track based out of 1932. Basically the song encompassed a very raw and folkish feel so I did a demo track first which received a good response from the team.”

Apart from mainstream bollywood music, the singer is also keen to revive the dying ghazal form of music and aims to take its heritage forward through various means including commercially in bollywood, concerts or albums and more. But with the ongoing trend showcasing most singers veering away from the form, as the daughter of a ghazal singer, Rizvi feels for the issue passionately.

“It is a difficult art form of music and not many can render it with the passion that it should be. Because it’s in my blood, I love singing them so much. But if you pick up a ghazal of the maestro Mehdi Hassan you will realize that it is no less than the intricacies of a classical track, so rendering them is not easy. I feel we need young people to take it forward,” she states.

But with bollywood being the dominant form of music across the country and with digital being the new talk of the town, classical and semi-classical genres have witnessed a generous dip in its fan following. The trend of consumption has witnessed a drastic change in all age groups and with a large number of choices being made available to the target audience, it just makes selection between different forms of music equally difficult.

Begging to differ Rizvi claims, “There is a lot of following for classical genres and ghazals. It is a myth that youngsters like only fast and club based numbers. Of course there must a large number of audience for such music, but there is also an audience for subtle, classical music. Whenever there is a concert of any artiste, the auditoriums are always packed so no one can say that there is no following for such music.”

As an independent vocalist of various art forms in music, Rizvi has been lending her voice for tracks since the age of six and even remembers composing many tracks for her sufi shows ‘Sufusion’ and her collaborative band ‘New Life’ with Sivamani and Stephen Devassy.

She is also currently working on her upcoming album ‘Tu hi Tu’ with the band and is also working on a freelance basis as a vocalist with several national and international bands including Prem Joshua and Bandish Projekt amongst others.

“With this film a lot of ideas and horizons have opened up. I think when you are a musician and you like creativity, you are already a composer and open to composing and get ideas. So with all this happening around me, I am just living in the moment and going with the flow,” she expresses.

Juggling several musical hats in an instant, the singer is also gearing up for her live concerts set to commence from November. Sufusion, her five member band collaborating sufi music with jazz and fusion, will witness several performances across the country while the New Life band will be performing across Mumbai in fests like Kala Ghoda, Lost and NCPA amongst others.

Having worked with the music genius like AR Rahman, Sivamani and having renowned classical vocalists as parents, Runa Rizvi’s wish list extends to a blend of several musical mavericks in bollywood. “I would love to work with Vishal-Shekhar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Amit Trivedi as all these composers create melodious, meaningful music in the industry which is very important,” she concludes.