Arunima Bhattacharya, whose parents stay in DL Block	Sekhar Suman and son Adhyayan who stars in the film Heartless

A girl who spent her college years in Salt Lake has sung for TV star Sekhar Suman’s directorial debut Heartless which released on February 7. She has sung a duet titled Mashooqana with Ash King, a London-based Indian pop singer.

Arunima Bhattacharya came to Salt Lake to stay with her grandparents in DL Block after she completed her Class XII Board examinations in Nagpur. “My parents felt I would get sound training in music in Calcutta. That was 2000. I studied in Jaipuria College and started taking music lessons from Anusua Mukherjee,” she said over the phone from Mumbai.

The classes were a big help. “Earlier, I found Rabindrasangeet boring. But learning Nazrulgeeti from her made me appreciate the depth of Bengali songs,” she says.

Mukherjee, who runs the music school Srijoni in AD Block, remembers Arunima for her “sweet voice”. “Her grandmother had brought her to me. It gives me great satisfaction to learn that one of my students is making a mark in the highly competitive music industry of Mumbai,” the 70-year-old said.

Arunima’s parents, Indrani and Prabir, shifted to Calcutta as well in 2001 when her grandfather fell ill.

The girl, who had appeared in an episode of the talent hunt Saregama on Zee TV in her high school days, reached till the semi-final of the Saregamapa world series held in Dubai, soon after graduation.

After two years as an air hostess, she settled in Mumbai in 2006. “I had reached the top 10 of Fame Gurukul season 2 on Sony. Later I met Palas Sen who asked me to sing for Euphoria.” Her first film was Hello Zindagi. “It sunk without a trace.”

Arunima’s big break was Sunidhi Chauhan backing out of Mashooqana. “She had some reservations about the contract the music company asked her to sign. I had sung the scratch version and it was decided that my voice would be retained.”

This Sunday, she marries the film’s music director Gaurav Dagaonkar but not as a thanksgiving. “We were dating from before,” she smiles.