By Saptakala
Singer-songwriter and a working professional at Disney TV, a young an aspiring talent at 25, Sruthi Dhulipala has Carnatic Music in her blood and has pruned her talent further by learning Carnatic Vocals under the tutelage of the Hyderabad Sisters and trained in Contemporary Vocals and Playback Singing at the Shankar Mahadevan Academy, and having performed extensively across India. Being based in the US at present has made her embrace her Carnatic heritage warmly while seamlessly blending it in all that she composes and sings – more notably her three Independent singles – the just-released ‘Madhuram’ a Sanskrit composition, followed by one in Telugu and the third in Hindi.
“I learned Madhurashtakam as a kid and would sing the M.S. Subbulakshmi version often at concerts. Recently while humming it, I decided to give it an original spin. I drew parallels of Lord Krishna being Madhuram to life being the same way, so I wrote the English lyrics around that theme,” she elaborates. A semi-classical melody set in Sanskrit, Madhuram is derived from the hymn “Madhurashtakam,” a composition devoted to Lord Krishna’s myriad qualities and how sweet each of them is. This single takes the original concept of a devotee calling Lord Krishna graceful and all things sweet, to Sruthi drawing similar parallels to life – saying that the world will seem sweet if we see it as such by celebrating the simple charms of life.
For this song, Sruthi Dhulipala has collaborated with established instrumentalist Sruthi Balamurali for the flute portions and worked with Tollywood actress and Bharatanatyam dancer Sneha Yarabati in the video. Lauding her musical collaborator and namesake, she says, “Sruthi Balamurali is an amazing multi-instrumentalist. For someone so talented and successful, Sruthi is also humble, down-to-earth and kind. When I approached her for the project, she immediately came on board and provided her inputs to the song. Working with her has been so smooth, considering our time and location differences. She’s based in Toronto and most of our communication was via email – from audio clips to video filming, etc. And, the composition turned out so well.”
Born in India, Sruthi moved to the US to pursue a Master’s degree at 20. But it was not all sunshine and cheers in the US. Sruthi did miss India, especially the live scene. “When I was living in Hyderabad, I performed regularly. In the US, I ached to do the same. After graduating, I realised it’s time I take my tryst with music in my own hands,” she informs us about her foray into the Indie music scene. The result was her debut original ‘Captive’ that released last year, garnering over 10k streams across audio platforms.
Post Madhuram, Sruthi is all set to release two more Independent singles, a Telugu song called Ee Parugu and an untitled Indie-pop Hindi melody.
Sruthi’s one strong desire is to get into playback – “My dream is to debut for Telugu playback, and collaborate with prominent music directors such as Pawan Ch, Anup Rubens, Harris Jayraj, Shankar Mahadevan among many others. Bollywood should soon follow,” she smiles. Amen to that!
Please check out the song here: https://www.youtube.com/