A Punjabi born in Delhi, singer Jonita Gandhi’s family migrated to Canada before she turned one and as she grew up, she naturally developed an accent. Singing in Indian languages without the accent requires a lot of effort, says the singer. “It requires effort and a lot of patience. Not so much for Hindi and Punjabi, because I grew up speaking these languages. But I had no exposure to Tamil or Telugu,” shares Gandhi.

Her song Arabic Kuthu from the Tamil film Beast has done well. The 32-year-old admits that it wouldn’t have been possible without her team members, who helped her get the diction right. “I have to rely on a good team, people who can tell me how it needs to be done, and if I am singing right or not. I am blessed to be able to mimic sounds really well,” explains the Gilehriyaan (Dangal, 2016) singer.

She has done playback for Hindi films such as Dishoom (2016), Kalank (2019) and Dil Bechara (2020), among others. When asked if her accent was an issue during her early days in Bollywood and Gandhi responds in the affirmative.

“Initially, it was a roadblock. People would assume I can’t sing without even listening to me. Today, my body of work speaks for itself. People have heard me sing in different languages. They call me and say, ‘I still don’t know how you sound like this, and that you have sung all these songs’,” she signs off.