Singer Chinmayi is again within the limelight.
Her rendition of Tamil monitor ‘Mutha Mazhai’ on the latest Thug Life audio launch in Chennai is garnering quite a lot of reward. The fascinating half is that Chinmayi has sung the Telugu and Hindi variations of this specific monitor composed by AR Rahman however not the Tamil model, which has been sung by singer Dhee, hottest for her ‘Enjoy Enjaami’.
“When I sang it, it was just another performance. It was just like how I perform classics of other singers; I have sung S Janaki amma’s, Chitra amma’s songs on various stages in the past. I sang the Tamil version that evening because Dhee was not available. I was a stand-in,” she explains.
That she might need been, however the model she dished out on stage, within the presence of 1000’s of followers and the whole starcast together with Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan and Trisha, has gone viral; its official recording from music label Saregama Tamil has already hit greater than 2 million views, with music followers demanding that it’s included within the movie’s closing model.
“When Dhee was cast, I’m sure they were going for something quirky. Dhee has a special musical expression, which cannot be imitated by anybody else. This whole talk about her version versus mine… it feels like we are part of a wrestling match that we did not sign up for. As artistes, we openly admire each other’s work. It is not a competition,” she says, “I want to apologise to Dhee. She’s a young girl. To compare the two versions is not necessary at all.”
Is Chinmayi banned?
The latest limelight on her has not but sunk in, she provides. “Because, in the last seven years, my DMs have been filled with abuse. Somewhere, my emotions got numb after that and now, when there is so much adulation, I’m like, ‘thank you, I guess’. While I’m truly grateful for this, I have become numb.”
Chinmayi is, in fact, referring to the years since 2018, when she named influential folks within the movie and music trade as a part of the #MeToo motion. This, she says, has made unions throughout the trade ‘ban’ her, thus depriving her of singing and dubbing possibilities in Tamil movies. “There are 20-plus unions in the film industry, and members are usually part of multiple unions. The dubbing union banned me. Director Mithran had to make me dub in secret for Hero. I also dubbed for Leo, for which they tried to track down the studio where it was worked on. When a film comes to the dubbing stage, people are racing against time, and they don’t have the bandwith to deal with such a ‘ban’,” she says.
Facing repercussions for utilizing her in movies, many composers have opted for different accessible singers. “A lot of music composers tell me that they want to make me sing, but that their producers wouldn’t let them,” says Chinmayi, who describes the help of her members of the family and householders as her greatest help, “Directors CS Amudhan and PS Mithran and music composer Govind Vasantha have also supported me through this phase. Actress Samantha has been my greatest cheerleader through this, as have Kerala actresses Parvathy and Rima.”
Musical discoverability
Chinmayi burst into the Tamil music scene in 2002, with the blockbuster ‘Oru Deivam’ music in Kannathil Muthamittal, a movie that was directed by Mani Ratnam and had music by AR Rahman. More than twenty years later, her work in Thug Life, which is a movie once more from the identical director-composer mixture, is being mentioned. How totally different have been these two experiences? “Nothing has changed. The working experience was the same. For Thug Life, Rahman sir sang a few lines, taught me and we worked on it.” The music showcases parts of Carnatic and qawwali as nicely. “It showcases his creative genius; he may be given the same bag of rice, but he’ll give you an entire 15-course menu with it.”
Her efficiency on the Thug Life audio launch has, in flip, led to music followers discovering a few of her older work. “This happened when I did a Twitter Spaces concert during the pandemic. A lot of people then requested some older songs of mine too and they got a lease of life then. In general, my career is defined by tracks that people don’t know I sang. If I ever have a live concert in Chennai, I will probably name it ‘I did not know you sang that’,” she laughs.
Trisha, Kamal Haasan, AR Rahman, Mani Ratnam and Silambarasan TR through the promotion of their upcoming movie ‘Thug Life’
| Photo Credit:
PTI
That most likely marks her musical versatility; Chinmayi sounds very totally different — from a melodious ‘Sara Sara’ to an lively ‘Mayya Mayya’. “Many of my songs have been standalone hits, but listeners have not been able to make a connection and attribute it to me, though my name is in the credits. If a composer asks for a certain tonality, I do it and that change of shruti results in a change of voice and tone. Maybe some listeners do not make the connection that it is the same singer,” explains Chinmayi, who’s wanting ahead to have interaction extra with artwork and music sooner or later.
Published – May 31, 2025 03:54 pm IST
