Raja Kumari raps for Jawan SRK, calls AR Rahman her musical father

Grammy-nominated rapper-singer Raja Kumari wrote and sang the title theme track of the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Jawan', releasing in theatres on September 7.

An accomplished Indian classical dancer, a teenaged Svetha Yallapragada Rao rechristened herself Raja Kumari when she became a singer-songwriter-rapper. And now, at 37, apart from her rap in Hindi film and indie songs, and recent album The Bridge, the music video of one of its songs Juice she recently released, Raja Kumari, is a globally recognised musician who was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2015, has collaborated with international musicians like John Legend, performed at Coachella and walked the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival this year.

The rapper has also written and performed the forthcoming film Jawan's title theme track, King Khan Rap for Shah Rukh Khan. Excerpts from an interview:

When did you first realise you have found 'your voice' and your ‘style’?

I realised I had a singing voice very early in life. There was this incident at home; I was watching Mariah Carey on TV and I remember my mom saying, ‘Turn off the TV’ and I kept singing the song. And then she said, ‘Didn’t I tell you to turn off the TV?’ and I was like, ‘Oh My God! My mom thinks I am Mariah Carey!’ I remember that moment. Later developing my own style happened during high school. I had the tone and voice and coming to Mumbai, being on stage, my voice became strong and would cut through like a dagger. That’s my vibe. I picked up a lot of different styles as my confidence in my performance grew. I found my style in high school, but it took touring the world to realise how different I was from everyone else.

Tell us how Svetha Yallapragada Rao became Raja Kumari?

Svetha Yallapragada Rao is an Indian classical dancer, a religious studies major and a scholar. I was influenced by hip hop and knew that I couldn’t use my name when it came to making music, because I was already too well-known as a classical dancer. I wanted an alter ego and felt that Raja Kumari was a space that I could create on my own. I made her like a superhero to protect me. She is the conglomeration of every badass woman I have played a character of in my dances. The root has been Mahishasura mardini and a little bit of Satyabhama, Draupadi and all the women that I was inspired by, and I became this rock star!

As a child, you learnt classical dance, you had three arangetrams, why did you choose music as your career?

Music chose me, it was my rebellion. I entered music through the rhythm space. When I would be touring with the orchestra, I would mimic all instruments with my voice and my voice developed like that. By the time I had done my third arangetram I had accomplished so much, at 14 -15 years. I think at that time, music was my rebellion, it was my own personal thing. Even though I really truly enjoyed classical dance, it was, after all, something that my parents wanted me to do. And, at that time, music was my personal liberation and expression.

Tell us about your musical roots.
I am self-taught, but I did do a few months of vocal training at 15, in my first demo. Mostly, I just taught myself, studying the greats and I applied what I learnt as a dancer, into hip hop. As a songwriter, I have been published for 10 years and have travelled the world for songwriting camps. I’ve had some incredible experiences as a songwriter with Gwen Stefani and had my platinum with Fall Out Boy.

How did you get into Indian music?

I always had a love for Indian classical music. I wanted to represent Indian culture worldwide and felt that people need to know me in the streets of India. I consider AR Rahman as my musical father because he is the first person, first artiste that I remember buying CDs of and thinking of and I would listen to on loop. I think he was the first fusion artiste in a lot of ways. He inspired me a lot, you can hear that in my music, you can hear Rahman’s influence in my music. It’s been such a pleasure to get to know him and have him as my mentor in my life.

Tell us about your latest album The Bridge. All videos aren’t out yet, why?

The Bridge is a pandemic album and is different from anything else that I’ve created. I made this album out of self-expression, and with just four people. The first single is Born To Win and really describes who I am today, accepting my path and unapologetically moving forward. This album follows my transition, my evolution from a place of fear to a place of self-love and to now being fearless. I didn’t drop all the music videos on day one. I want to take my time with the visuals and bring people into my world and what I was thinking when I created it.

How was your Cannes debut this year supporting Diipa Büller-Khosla's beauty brand Indē Wild?

Cannes was a whirlwind. I love Diipa for having the vision to bring someone like me to Cannes which is ruled by models, actors and influencers and that she was able to imagine South Asian women supporting each other. I feel that really related to who I am in my ethos. Hats off to Manish Malhotra’s team and my styling team because they put together everything in India while I was in the US. I never had a trial and as somebody who is not sample size, my biggest fear is the fitting. I just love Manish so much for understanding a woman’s curves and making sure that I felt beautiful. The first time I put that dress on, it fit like a glove. Cannes was an experience I will never forget.

You were nominated for the Grammys in 2015. How important is an award for you?

Being Grammy-nominated came at the right time in my career. It helped my parents understand that there was no delineated path for music. It is not like you can get a CAT score and they know that you are doing well. I think that being Grammy-nominated helped them understand that there was a purpose for me doing this. It helped take that risk and move to India to focus fully on music. I'm a Capricorn, and if I get to the peak of one mountain, I look to the next. I have a tendency to not enjoy my wins. Recently, I won the Musician Of The Year Award 2023 (Grazia), and that meant so much. If I don’t win it's not important, but if I do, then yes, an award is a big deal.