Sona Mohapatra says Vishal Dadlani told her to sing at ‘women festivals’

Sona Mohapatra says ‘romantic songs’ are now only sung by men. The singer believes that the ‘solo female perspective’ from the music industry had vanished. In a new interview, Sona also criticised singer-musician Vishal Dadlani, one of the organisers of the music festival NH7, for the poor representation of women onstage. She said her husband, musician Ram Sampath was invited to such festivals, while she was not invited despite ‘being worthier than Ram’. Read more: Sona Mohapatra recalls getting rape, death threats for criticising Salman Khan

Sona’s OTT documentary Shut Up Sona, directed and shot by Deepti Gupta, released on Friday. The singer said it was not attempting to be ‘an autobiography or a hagiography’ unlike many Bollywood films. She said it was about a ‘female artiste’s journey’ and how women ‘do not get enough opportunities’ to build their brand, like the male artistes do.

In an interview with The Quint, Sona also shared her struggle when trying to perform at music festivals, and how she had to lose out on ‘a lot of work’ because of her outspoken nature.

“Because of my outspoken nature I have lost a lot of work. In my film you would see I am not being kind to Ram. He is being invited to NH7, when I should have been. In some way, I am worthier than him. I am a bigger live performer than Ram. I have a band, I have been touring for the last 15 years, but I am never invited to NH7. The truth is, I am maybe the troublemaker or the irritating woman, whom NH7 will not call. I feel I am flawed. But when I make mistakes, I am willing to say sorry and hug someone. Maybe NH7 should do that too,” Sona said.

Sona also spoke about calling up Vishal and telling him that while he would speak about political issues like Kashmir, he was silent about what was happening ‘in his own backyard’. She said he was a stakeholder in the company that organised NH7, but was not willing to ‘do something’ about the ‘pathetic’ representation of women on that stage.

“He (Vishal) would tell me ‘do your women festival’. We (women) need to be put into a ghetto, we need to have a women’s quote to sing on stage? Which India are we living in?” Sona said.

Sona also said she got only five lines to sing in the song Zaalima from the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees, while singer Arijit Singh sang almost the entire song. She said that very often women were offered the reprised version of songs as a ‘consolation gift’. However, Sona praised filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali for having ‘a balanced soundtrack’ in his movies.