Singer Aastha Gill on life before fame: Was happy with a salary at the end of the month

Aastha Gill always wanted to be a singer, but was wary of the “struggle”. “Deep down, I always wanted to be a singer, but I guess I wasn’t ready to accept that fact. As it happens, I was happy that I was getting a salary at the end of every month, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how the industry is. What will happen if I don’t make it as a singer?’ My father is also a music director, so I had seen him struggle. So, I was not sure,” she says.

Before she got her first break in 2014, when she sang Dhup Chik in Fugly, Aastha was working in an advertising agency. The 24-year-old singer recalls the call that changed her life: “About four-five years back, while I was working in Delhi, I got a call from Raftaar bhai, who said he wanted me to sing for a Bollywood film. He didn’t tell me what film it was going to be. I wasn’t even sure if the song will really be used, but I took the risk,” she says.

“That same day, I fought with my boss over it, and he fired me. I was crying, and I called my mother and I told her what had happened, and she said, ‘chor na, kya hota hai?’. And as soon as I hung up, Raftaar bhai called! He wanted me in the studio the next day, and the rest is history,” adds the singer, who later collaborated with singer Badshah for songs such as DJ Waale Babu and Mercy.

But, it took her four years to release her own independent single, Buzz, featuring her mentor, Badshah. About collaborating with him once again, she says, “I’ve been thinking about working on my debut song for the last two years. I met so many music directors/ composers. But, I didn’t get a kick out of those meetings. So, finally, I went to him, and said ‘Badshah bhai yeh aap hi crack kar sakte ho’. He, then, sat down, and asked me a few questions, and we were ready with the song in 45 minutes,” she says.

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