Madhuri Dixit Nene: I am not singing just for the heck of it

After dancing and acting, actor Madhuri Dixit Nene is busy finding the right notes for singing. She admits that she doesn’t look at it as a career expansion, but a way to express her emotions, thoughts and connect with fans.

“After spending over 35 years in the industry, I am still looking for new challenges to take, and playing it to the best of my ability, like singing. To be frank, singing has always been a part of me since the beginning,” Nene tells us, adding, “When I was working (in the initial years of my career), I was so busy that I didn’t really get time to devote to it.”

She forayed into the world of singing with Candle in 2020, and then released her second song, Tu Hai Mera, on her 55th birthday earlier this month, which she likes to call a “love letter” to her fans.

The actor, who recently starred in Fame Game, adds that exploring music is not a whim for her, and she has put in the work to get it right.

“Whenever I do something, I work hard on it. I don’t just do it for the heck of it. It’s not something that was a lark with me thinking, ‘okay, let’s sing’. It was not like that. I prepared for it. I took vocal training from Ron Anderson, who has trained everyone from Whitney Houston to Ariana Grande. We went into the studio and recorded the songs. I put a lot of thought into it,” says the actor.

Opening up about it, she says, “I used to sing when I was in school. My mother is a trained classical singer. So, I used to sit with her and sing. So music was always a part of my life. In fact, my husband used to say that you have a good voice, why don’t you sing? I was like ‘I’m in a profession, suddenly, why should I start singing?’ But soon it turned serious for me, and just like that I released my second song, which is my way of giving back to my fans who have supported me”.

Now, Nene is diving deep into her emotions to find the rhythms of her songs, and enjoying the process.

“To me, it is not just singing but also putting down my thoughts and what I feel. I am not singing somebody else’s song. It’s from my heart. I actually wrote the words. That’s why it is not the singing part, the second part to all this is that, for me, it is an outlet, and another extension of me,” says the actor, who made her debut in 1984 with Abodh, going on to impress the world with her acting and dancing skills.

“Whether it’s dance or acting, it’s expression. So, voice and singing is also a different form of expression, and writing is another form. For me, it is a part of who I am,” she ends.