One of the major turning points in my life was a chance meeting with Gautam Chatterjee of the iconic Bangla band, Mohiner Ghoraguli in August 1994. I was in my second year of college and performing with my band, Jatugriher Pakhi, at the college festival. When I was preparing for my part two exams, I got a call from one of my band members saying that Gautamda wanted us to sing one of the songs for his new album— Abar Bochhor Kuri Pore. It got released in 1995 at the Calcutta book fair. We sang the song, Ganga.

On the evening of its release, all the 500 copies of the album were sold out. This overwhelming response gave me a huge adrenaline rush.

I decided to quit my studies when I was in the final year of M.Sc. — and this too proved to be a turning point.

The fallout of Abar Bochhor Kuri Pore was that I got offers to record jingles and title songs for serials like Ebong Rituparno and films including Ek Je Achhe Kanya.

Anchoring Rojgere Ginni, a reality show that I did in 2001, was a significant turning point too. This programme became a huge hit and there’s been no looking back since.

I went on to release my own album called Ghore Ferar Gaan in 2003 which won the Music World Best Debut Music Album award. Now I am working on multiple projects including a second album and hosting the cookery show, R Rannaghar. I’m also planning to launch my own TV show very soon.

(As told to Lubna Salim)