Mithila Palkar has been spending a lot of time honing her ukulele skills. “I always wanted to learn an instrument. While I wanted to learn the sitar, I thought of starting with the ukulele, which is also a string instrument,” says the actor, adding, “I have been learning it for almost seven years. My house has a music room and my maasa recently gifted me a keyboard. I do the riyaaz daily and find it very meditative. I am a self-taught musician. The internet has played a role in helping me learn music. I learnt playing the cups on the internet too.”

Sharing how her love for music developed, Palkar shares that her father introduced her to music. “He’s a die-hard music lover. He would sing while putting me to sleep. The culture of music has been in my house since I was a baby. My nana played the tabla, flute and other instruments,” she says.

The 30-year-old has had a couple of releases and she now wishes “to learn music formally”. Sharing how she and music are inseparable, Palkar says, “I am always singing, even when I’m on the set. When we were working together on a project, my Marathi co-actor Amey Wagh would get annoyed and say, ‘Rolling bolne tak tum gaati hi rehti ho! Mujhe toh focus karne do’. Also, when I was shooting for Karwaan (2018), Irrfan Khan sir (late actor) would call me Binaca Geetmala (a yesteryear radio show). DQ (actor Dulquer Salmaan) called me a jukebox. He would tell me what to sing.”

A lover of “Hindustani and Carnatic classical music”, the Ori Devuda (2022) actor is “yet to delve deep into western classical”. She adds, “I remember while growing up, I would wait for audio cassettes of M S Subbulakshmi (Carnatic singer) that my maasi would get for me from the US. I enjoy like retro Marathi and Hindi music. My favourite vocal combinations are Mohammed Rafi-Asha Bhosle and Sonu Nigam-Shreya Ghoshal.”