From sketches to singing — meet the architect who is doing it all Premium

Architect Bhavana Isvi balances a successful career in architecture with a passion for playback singing in Chennai.

To immerse herself in playback singing and Carnatic music, this full-time architect packed up and made the move to Chennai a year ago. “Here, in Chennai, I can have the best of both worlds, from designing to singing in the film industry,” says Bhavana Isvi.

For her, singing came way before architecture at 4 years old, when she was humming the Titanic theme songs, and going all the way up to singing for film choruses, backing vocals while juggling her architecture degree, and eventually landing big projects in 2023 with the films Kushi, Hi Nanna, and Keedaa Cola as a playback singer.

“When I’m not recording for films, I’m out exploring Chennai. There are so many landmarks here that the architect in me has an eye for, or I’m doing gigs on weekends around the city,” says Bhavana who is also doing a part-time Audio Engineering at KM Music Conservatory. “A lot of industries are bringing their work to Chennai because of the high-quality output and the talent pool of musicians. If you’re good, people here will definitely notice you,” she adds.

As the internet shows, architects and architecture students often have gruelling, non-stop hours dedicated to projects and studies; so, even thinking about a hobby can seem daunting, let alone singing for films. But, while she was designing residences, Bhavana recently recorded for composers, such as Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jayaraj, and director Ram Gopal Varma.

“While I didn’t have design jury reviews or supervision, I used to make cover songs, send them to composers and post them on social media. That’s how some music directors found me, and that’s how playback singing happened,” says Bhavana, who is originally from Hyderabad.

Now, in Chennai, juggling her way through both the music industry and working as an architect at a studio, she has always glued to one project or another, recently designing a cafe in Hyderabad, besides farmhouses and residences. One part of the day is spent handling sketches and drafts, and collaborating with her team, while the other part goes for her music. “In both fields, you have to be 100% ready because there is always something spontaneous, whether it is sudden music recordings or last-minute site visits in architecture,” she says.

Over the course of time, these two seemingly different streams merged into a shared work ethic. “Most architects and artists have this constant urge to create something new, and I feel that too. It is that deep desire to break free from the monotony and create something that challenges society’s expectations,” she says. Studying architecture brought her to connect with like-minded individuals, and she says the cultural activities at her college helped her keep in touch with her musical side.