Singer Jonita Gandhi has been garnering heaps of praises for her latest Punjabi track ‘Chal Koi Na’. While the song was released a few weeks back, it has now suddenly caught up with the audiences of Instagram Reels and TikTok. The song, which has more than 5 Million views on YouTube, is slowly and steadily turning out to be charting the popularity lists.
In a quick chat with Outlook, Gandhi speaks up about how the song came about, how she prefers the messaging of a song more than anything else, and how she is not missing going out for recordings in this ‘new normal’. Excerpts from the chat:
‘Chal Koi Na’ has been massively successful for you. What pushed you towards picking up this song?
Thank you, firstly. The video and the song have been a long work in progress. It has been several months now; we went to Hawaii to shoot this and what inspired me was that I am a person who has always been excited about working in an urban Punjabi scene, especially because I grew up in Toronto in a Punjabi family and I have always been fond of music. Of course, I have been more preoccupied with my Bollywood projects for the last couple of years but after I did a collaboration called ‘Mera Ji Karda’ with Deep Jandu and then ‘Nana’ with Mickey Singh, I have kind of found a home at Treehouse VHT and we are working on a lot of exciting new projects in this space and ‘Chal Koi Na’ is the beginning of my solo journey with them.
The song sends out a meaningful message. Do you always look out for such songs?
I think this was a very fun song and also a very light song in terms of the message and the message of the song is always very important for me. The message of the song is very beautiful and very light. It is about letting go; it is kind of a break-up song but it can be applied to anything. It is about situations where you can walk away from something and not necessarily be bitter about it and see it in a positive light. It is just a part of growth and moving on in our journeys.
Is working more difficult now in this new normal? As in going out to recording studios etc? What sort of precautions do you take?
I think working now after the pandemic, people have adapted themselves. I am actually quite comfortable now because I have always had a home set-up and I think people are more inclined to send sessions and to have things done remotely, which I think works in my favour because I am able to schedule my time better, prioritize my family, mental health because I can work around things in a little easier way because I am recording things myself. Of course, the live studio experience cannot be exchanged but I definitely think that we are managing as well as we can and I don’t really miss going out to recording studios as much.
You began your musical journey making cover songs of popular songs. And now you’re doing T-Series mix-tape where you’re again are remaking old popular songs. Do you think life has come full circle?
I think by doing T- Series mixed tape now as somebody who used to do covers I wouldn’t say I am coming full circle, I just think I am doing more of what people grew to love about me and I am trying to stay in touch with that fan base as well and people who love my songs. Definitely, the fact that I am doing with the labels now is a testament to the fact that I have grown but even still while I am doing T-Series mixed tape, I am still releasing covers on my channel that have been produced by myself. I think it is just me trying to satisfy my audiences and kind of give them what they like.
