Nitin Kalra
Ila Arun is back a bit ‘Haule Haule’
She is a singer, an actress, a lyricist, a scriptwriter, a music director and a theatre performer. As India’s leading folk singer and performer Ila Arun needs no introduction. Infact her work is enough to speak for her. Her film songs in Lamhe and Khalnayak, serials like Tamas and Lifeline and her albums like Vote For Ghagra and Bichhuda – all speak of the success of Ila Arun. The multi-talented personality has recently launched her fifth pop album ‘Haule Haule’ with Tips.
Ila shot into fame after the spectacular success of Lamhe where she sang the popular ‘Morni’ number with Lata Mangeshkar and then the much talked about and rather controversial ‘Choli Ke Peeche’ from Khalnayak. The success of the two songs made Ila very much wanted as a singer in the film industry. So far she has done playback for over 50 films but feels this still is not enough. “I have a heavy voice and so I can’t sing all types of songs. Probably the use of folk in films is going down and hence demand for folk specialists like me is also low. But surely I am happy with what I have done so far”.
With resounding success for her film songs it was time to step into the world of Indi-Pop and Ila did so rightly at the right time. Her albums – Bichhuda, Mela and Vote For Ghagra all brought her an increment in her fan following and Ila went on maturing day by day. And that’s what she has emerged as in her next album ‘Haule Haule’, “A mature singer,” as she puts it.
The album ‘Haule Haule’ has been inspired and dedicated to women. Says Ila, “The album plunges the Indian woman’s soul to explore the depth of romance and fantasy. Being a woman I can understand the mind and soul of a woman and hence I feel I have been able to do justice to all the songs”. Ila has written all the songs herself and has also done the tunes for all the songs. There are two videos, one of the title track and the other of the song ‘O Mere Bairaagi’ directed by Prasun Pandey and choreographed by Saroj Khan.
Want To Feel What The Album ‘Haule Haule’ Sounds Like. Log On To: www.tipsmusicfilms.com
But the real attraction of the album is the amalgamation of North and the South as two of the best music directors in the industry have done the music on the album – Jawahar Wattal and Kartik Raja. “I wanted to bring the influence of both North and South India in the music and so I selected two of the very best. I am happy to have worked with both of them and also that they have done a great job as far as music and carrying my voice is concerned,” informs Ila.
Ila says that as far as acting is concerned she is currently doing a lot of theatre with her group called ‘Surnai’. “We have done several plays like ‘Jethwa’, ‘Riyaz’ and others. Theatre is my passion and I love doing it,” informs Ila who has also acted in films like Ghatak and China Gate besides her television serials including Yatra, Kabir, Tamas, Lifeline and Discovery of India.
Ila Arun has over the past eleven years of her existence in the entertainment industry as a performer has done over a hundred shows and is known for staging and managing lavishly decorated sets with advanced light and sound. With such a variety of work sketching the portrait of her life Ila Arun can be termed as one artist who has not only brought folk music into limelight with the masses but has also brought it to its deserving place. All this despite the fact that it happened ‘Haule Haule’, but nonetheless she deserves applause for it.
Ila Arun spoke to Nitin Kalra at her album launch at Hotel Holiday Inn, Mumbai.Other Places to go:
Dhadkan - Your Gateway To Indian Music
The World Of Entertainment - SatyamOnline
Zee Learn - India's Education Portal