Madras Day | Singer Shakthisree Gopalan on how Chennai shaped her journey with music

For singer Shakthisree Gopalan, Chennai is defined by its people, and remains the city that set context to her journey as a musician

The late breakfast crowd in Besant Nagar’s Murugan Idli is waning. But the hot, fluffy idlis keep flowing as dollops of sambar, and the many chutneys play accomplices. The elais are well on their way to transforming into crime scenes. Singer Shakthisree Gopalan is famished as she arrives. “I haven’t eaten anything knowing we are coming here,” she declares. This is where she used to come with her tribe, as a 20-something student at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University. Today, over the very same steaming idlis , she speaks of the city that grew on her so much that it is home now. The sakkarai pongal stands witness.  

Her first impression of Madras was far from positive. “First of all, my parents used to bring me here for summer vacation! Who brings people to Chennai, of all the cities, during peak summer?” says the ‘Nenjame Nenjame’ singer. Originally from Kochi, she later moved to Chennai as a college student. The first one-and-a-half years were spent in the hostel with woes that typically seal the experience of being a hosteler, in tow.  

“I wouldn’t bunk classes or go against any of the rules. It was my friends, who were all born and raised in Chennai, who changed me,” she laughs. “Back then, my friends had never heard me sing. But they knew that I was paithyam (mad) about music.” She reminisces about her first time at the arts festival IIT Saarang, when her friends had lied to her about classes being cancelled only to get her to participate: It would go on to be Shakthisree’s first unofficial gig in Chennai. 

Besant Nagar quickly became a convenient and accessible getaway for the entire class. On some days, they would “mass bunk” the second half of college, take an auto, and come to the beach. 

Right then, for her, Madras was defined by its people. And soon after, as the city that further rooted her to her music. “Fast forward, I started going to Unwind Centre gigs, to watch a lot of independent music bands. One of the most impactful performances that I remember watching there was of the Bengaluru-based Lounge Piranha. I used to follow Skrat as well. Later, I would perform there.” Since then, every musical milestone in the city has been surreal.

“I remember singing ‘Dil Se’ once in college at the gallery, and it was nuts. I started singing, and made that mandatory switch to the Tamil lyrics, and the crowd erupted. It was one of the first times I tasted showmanship, a memory that I viscerally remember,” she says. To this day, the Chennai audience’s love for songs in the language remains unabated, she adds.

The city also cemented her tryst with playback singing: it was a new world. She burst into cinema with ‘Nenjukulle’ from Mani Ratnam’s Kadal, 10 years ago, and has, since then, worked with most of the leading composers.