Aditi Saigal, also known as DOT, has held her fort in the much-acclaimed film The Archies, helmed by Zoya Akhtar. The film had a fresh bunch of kids making their debut, which included names like Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda and Khushi Kapoor. However, ever since the release the singer, songwriter and actor has been heaped with praises for her natural acting. She confesses she related well to Ethel Muggs as a character. Though, given a chance, she says she would have loved to play Jughead Jones. “I love Jughead. even in real life. He’s so cool and has his own thing going on in the comics. He has his track in life and nothing else matters.”
She was certainly born to be in showbiz, as she’s the daughter of the famous theatre personality Shena Gamat and late Amit Saigal, who was a rock musician and founder and editor of the music magazine Rock Street Journal. It was her mother who also came up with a unique stage name for Aditi, who delved into the world of music at the tender age of 12. She reveals the logic behind it. “It comes from a young time in my life when my mom and I used to fill in colouring books. For me, it just had to be in the lines. In comes my mom and she is just drawing dots all over the place and starting to make designs.
I used to get upset and ask her repeatedly why she was not doing it correctly, and she said, ‘Well, a little dot never hurts anyone.”
Music seems to run in her entire family. “My whole family is creative. My mom is in theatre, and my dad was into music. My grandmother is a trained Hindustani classical singer. I recently learnt that my granddad used to sell his line drawings to newspapers. My school was big on promoting music, so it became a natural thing. My college taught music.” She studied at the Theme Music School under the Trinity method and then went on to get a degree in music from the University of Bangor, Wales. She excitedly talks about Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Louis Armstrong, which influenced her taste greatly. She loves jazz music and when it comes to Bollywood music, she finds herself drawn to the kind of tunes inspired by it. During her college years, she ventured into singing as part of a band. In 2017, her career catapulted to success with the viral hit Everybody dances to techno, amassing over 500,000 hits.
She had connected with Zoya to rework a song for the film. The director had been following her work for a while. On a whim, Zoya asked her if she had ever acted and she confessed only in school plays and dramas. She was asked to audition and got selected. That’s when she flew down from the UK. She expresses immense gratitude towards Zoya, for she couldn’t have asked for a better launch pad as an artiste who’s looking to dabble in acting and music. “I felt like I could contribute in many ways. The jamming session where Zoya included me in the writing process, there’s nothing more special than that. I had to get back to how I was when I was a teenager and I would suggest certain things that may not have worked for the character. So we had to tweak it. There was a lot of back and forth between Zoya, Ankur Tewari and me. It was a well-rounded experience.” She is the voice of Khushi Kapoor, aka Betty Cooper, in the Dear Diary songs and in Asymmetrical. She has also sung Dhishoom Dhishoom and Sunoh in the film, all of which have been chartbusters in this musical.
Having been mentored by one of the finest filmmakers like Zoya Akhtar at the start of her acting career, she shares how it helped her get a grip on things. “Zoya wanted to bring out what was already there and the rest of it was all technical. She’s such a visionary. She wants a certain thing and knows what she wants. She’s direct about it and not afraid to experiment,” gushes Aditi.
An instant success with such a big debut film may seem intimidating, she addresses it pragmatically. “I see it as a journey. You might make a film or a song that’s better or worse. I don’t see that as an intimidating thing. But yes, this whole process is pretty scary.” She thanks the universe for the opportunity to collaborate with renowned music composers Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Indie musician Ankur Tewari and lyricist Javed Akhtar. She is set to release her remastered songs in an EP titled Practice Rooms soon. These are all originals that were brewed back in university practice rooms and nurtured during local open mic nights. With a wider audience now following The Archies, she wants to re-release her old songs and see where it takes her. Fingers crossed!
Tanisha Bhattacharya
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