One of the promising voices in contemporary Bollywood music, Shashwat Singh is eager to learn and it is this open attitude that has earned him some important projects. Singh’s oeuvre is full of hit notes — songs like Wat wat wat from Tamasha, Show me the thumka from Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, Sugar baby from Thug Life, and Haan main galat from Love Aaj Kal. His versatility makes him a favourite among top composers, like A.R. Rahman and Pritam. Over the years, the Allahabad-born singer has matured and his latest song, Zamaana lage from Metro… In Dino, has swiftly made it to people’s playlist. A tete-a-tete with Singh, who was in Calcutta recently.

Zamaana lage became a hit the moment it dropped. How has the journey been with the song?

The journey has been amazing because from the moment I dubbed the song, it was received so well. Even dada (Pritam) was very happy with the takes that I had given. The audience loved it as well, so, it was wonderful. It’s such a good ghazal, such old poetry by Qaisar Ul Jafri, which still resonates with people despite being written in the ’60s. It’s amazing that it has that impact on the new generation, and they are understanding the depth of it. So, it’s a big honour to be a part of the project.

Since you have never sung a song like this before, that melds an Urdu ghazal with contemporary music, how challenging was it?

Credit goes to Pritam da because ghazal is sung with a certain ease. The emotion conveyed through a combination of poetry and melody is supposed to be very easygoing or soothing. So, he made the melody in such a way that the pauses in between lines like tumhare sheher ka mausam and bada suhana lage, gave space for the singer to channel the emotion required for the song.

Do you think you’re more confident now and you can take more challenging songs, especially ghazals?

I would love to sing ghazals; they are beautiful. Actually, I sing ghazal, but I’ve never officially sung and uploaded anything on the Internet. Some of my favourites are Farida Khanam’s Aaj jaane ki zid na karo, something that my generation fell in love with. And then Chupke, chupke raat din by Jagjit Singh. It’s very hard to do justice to ghazals till you really, really understand the meaning of the lyrics; the essence of the couplets. That is something I’m working on.

Since you were in Calcutta, tell me about curating a playlist for us.

I generally stick to my songs, like Wat wat wat, Haan Main Galat, Show me the thumka, Kesariya dance mix and others. Since it is Bengal, and I have a few favourites, I make sure to sing Janina bhalolaga, Tumi amari hobe, Tomake chuye dilam and others. Indraadip Das Gupta is my favourite, a genius. Bengal is a hub of genius artistes and I love coming and working with people here.

Apart from Zamaana lage, your other recent songs include Telugu and Tamil versions of War 2 songs.

Hrithik Roshan and Kiara Advani’s War 2 released in the south and I lent my voice to Oopiri ooyalaga in Telugu and Ulagena uruveduthaay in Tamil. My co-singer is Nikhita Gandhi.

Nikhita and you are a team. Tell us about ShNik and the kind of independent music you two are making.

We make different types of music and are not really limited by any genre. So there’s hip-hop, folk and all kinds of music. This year has been wonderful with music. We are going to release something really interesting this month.