Bollywood still has room to incorporate ghazals: Srijani Ghosh

“I wish to come up with ghazals that the youth can relate to. Ghazals are like stories and I want to give the audience stories in which they see themselves as characters,” says Australia-based ghazal singer Srijani Ghosh. The Kolkata-born musician, who came up with a ghazal album, Reflection, in July, feels the genre deserves more prominence in the mainstream, especially Bollywood. “If we go back 10 years, we had a very significant influence of ghazals in cinema. The decline of this practice is visible. I strongly believe Bollywood still has room to incorporate ghazals, the only questions is if they (the makers and composers) would like to reconsider it,” wonders Ghosh.

Having lived in Australia for many years, is it easy for the singer to practice Indian classical music and ghazals there? “Geographically, it gets challenging at times. But it’s not impossible to practice Indian music if one has the passion for it. The Indian diaspora always looks for mediums to connect with their root, as they are away from their country. So, music plays an important role there,” shares Ghosh, who performed at the Vedanta Udaipur World Music Festival in Udaipur (Rajasthan) recently.

Interestingly, her ghazal show in Udaipur was attended by a lot of youngsters. Ask what she feels about the popularity of the genre among the youth of today and the singer says, “There are a lot of ghazal listeners among the youth. Music lovers still appreciate good content, meaningful lyrics and soulful compositions. I think we should come up with ghazals that can resonate with contemporary listeners.”