Coming from a small town in Odisha and making a mark in Bollywood with mostly soft numbers, playback singer Sona Mohapatra says she cannot sing in an anglicised manner.
Sona, who is behind songs like "Naina", "Ambarsariya" and "Jiya Laage Na", said she does not get offers to lend her voice in party tracks.
"I am proud of my roots and can't sing Hindi music with American accent. Probably, this is the reason that I don't get songs which are hip and cool. I am happy about it. I can't put an accent while singing.
"I always wanted to represent where I come from. I have not grown up listening to English music. So, Hindi music sung with an American accent might be somebody's cup of tea but definitely not mine," Sona told PTI.
Mohapatra recently launched the first track "Neher Vale Pul" from her new album "Punjab Project - Volume 1". The song, produced by DJ Sumit Sethi, pays an ode to Noor Jehan, who was conferred with the title of Mallika-E-Tarannum for her vocal prowess.
The singer said she was apprehensive to step into the shoes of the legendary singer.
"The core of the song is a beautiful melody. It's not a fly-by-night song. It's not like few interesting words put together in foot-tapping beats. It's very close to my heart because I have always been vocal about folk music. I hope I did complete justice to the song sung by Noor Jehanji," she said.
Sona, an engineering graduate and wife of Bollywood composer Ram Sampath, never thought that she would make it big one day as a singer because of her husky voice.
"We are three sisters and all of us sang. My grandmother used to tell me 'please don't sing' as I have got husky voice. Few years ago, nobody believed that I can sing love ballads. I sang 'Naina' (Khoobsurat) and everyone loved it."
Sona said she is thankful that now people are ready to hear every kind of voice.
"When I left my lucrative job, and decided to join music industry, people said with this kind of voice I will get very niche work. The journey has been longer therefore because it was tough to cast a voice like me.
"But look at the times we live in. I am getting offers to sing love ballads. Nobody is offering me item numbers," she said.
