Mumbai-based Meghna Mishra (16) is creating ripples in the Bollywood playback music circuit with her debut tracks ‘main kaun hoon’ and ‘nachdi phira’ which have been featuring in the Top 20 play-list of several popular radio channels since the October 2017 release of Hindi film Secret Superstar, produced by veteran actor Aamir Khan assisted by music director Amit Trivedi. This class XI humanities student of the CAIE (UK)-affiliated Witty International School, Goregaon, was also the youngest to be nominated for best vocalist in the recently concluded Star Screen Awards 2017. 

“Public appreciation is my greatest reward. I am deeply grateful to Amitji and Aamirji for their faith in me. Moreover, I am glad the film has recorded a box office collection of Rs.80 crore and counting,” says Meghna, who has fond memories of her recording sessions at mega star Aamir Khan’s Panchgani home last summer. 

Singing comes naturally to this only child of classical vocalist Sanjay and Aarti Mishra, the latter a Kathak dancer and tabla exponent. “Although we are a musical family, my parents never imposed pressure on me to start training early. They left it to me to discover my aptitudes and inclinations. Soon enough, I discovered that I had inherited my parents’ talent for music,” says Meghna, who has also enrolled as an external student at the city’s Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal for its bachelor’s programme in music. 

While Meghna began her formal training in Hindustani classical music under her father’s tutelage when she was ten, she also taught herself to play the guitar, piano and harmonium. A year later, impressed by her excellent voice quality at an informal gathering, a family friend invited her to sing for Vitti Dandu, a Marathi film produced by him. Last April, she landed the contract for Secret Superstar after receiving a phone call from Amit Trivedi’s assistant requesting a voice sample on Whatsapp.

After completing her Plus Two next year, Meghna intends to focus on sangeet visharad (bachelor’s degree) in Hindustani classical music and simultaneously prepare for stage shows and playback singing for Bollywood productions. “Music is my life now. There is nothing that gives me more pleasure,” says this promising vocalist who is set to hit the big time.

Way to go!

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)