Jun 23, 2026 9:37pm IST
On Akasa’s Wishlist: Collaborations With KATSEYE, Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa And Sabrina Carpenter (EXCLUSIVE)
After lending her voice to the recent track “Jab Talak” from “Cocktail 2” and with the title song of Huma Qureshi-starrer “Baby Do Die Do” just out, Akasa is juggling film music, live performances as well as her working on her independent numbers. In a conversation with Variety India, the singer talks about her dream collaborations with artists such as KATSEYE, Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and Raye, the booming concert scene in India and why music biopics are difficult to pull off.
How and when did you come on board ‘Jab Talak’?
It’s a Pritam da song. How it goes is: they call you, you go there, you dub. Someone like me, I never ask, “Hey, what film is this for?” Obviously, I ask what the vibe is or how they want me to sing it. That's pretty much what it was, but the interesting and maybe inspiring part is, like, I have been dubbing for Pritam da now since 2016. And as it goes in the industry, sometimes songs work out, sometimes they don’t. But they're very like, you know, Side-B songs, like background songs or like intro songs. I've had a couple of Pritam da songs, but not like a full-fledged lead single, where it’s featured on an A-Lister. This is the first time in 10 years and I think that is what makes this song really special. I went in, dubbed it and I came back home and dubbed it five more times because there were a lot of changes.
Madhubanti Bagchi is on this song with you, right?
As Madhubanti will tell you, it was a very last-minute addition. When the teaser… the first part of the song came out, this decision wasn’t made. It was very cool though, you get to hear similar voices in the song, but it's still so distinctly different, and I think that is what the role of Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna required. Two powerful, heavy voices, for the lack of a better word, on the same song. It was pretty good.
Pritam does this a lot where he takes two similar voices, but…
They are the same and yet they are not.
Few think on those lines, no?
I think it would be very easy for him to either use the same voice or not pay so much attention to detail and get very different, distinct voices but yeah, there is a reason Dada's a genius and this must be one of them.
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What is the best part of this song?
Not tooting my own horn, but even when I heard it, even when I didn't know if this was going to go in my voice, I remember saying that, “Oh, this part is so pretty.” It's very different from the whole song. The part that I’ve sung… the song is very cool, very jazzy, and suddenly there's like this almost frail Sufi part that comes in. And I love that they let me be very Punjabi for it. Because if you hear the rest of the song, I literally sang some very Western, thin vocals. I got to be completely me and Punjabi in that. I think that is my favorite part and I love it because it's very new. It's what I'm most comfortable singing.
Would you say that it is this film's ‘Tumhi Ho Bandhu’?
This is what happened when the teaser came out and immediately, people were like, you can't compare it to “Tumhi Ho Bandhu.” Yeah, you can't because that's a whole different vibe.
Thematically…
I think just mine and Madhubanti’s lines are in the same genre, but the rest of the song is very different because “Tumhi Ho Bandhu” is a different groove altogether. This has a lot of jazz, a lot of live instruments coming together and that's more like a club, sort of a song with Sufi vocals. You can't say this is the “Tumhi Ho Bandhu” or the “Daaru Desi.” This is very different.
So, ‘Michael’ did great business and there’s also talk of a Kishore Kumar biopic in the works, but the music biopic genre in India is yet to take off….
It could be one of two things. So many things have to align for it. Not only was the industry, whoever was legally bound to “Michael,” but also his family had to come together and so many things had to fall in place for a film like “Michael”. Maybe in India, I could see more hiccups happening with permissions, etc. But if I'm also being very honest, jab tak woh uss level ka justice na de paaye, I am glad they are not touching it. Kyunki, you'd rather be very cautious about these things than commit a blunder, you know what I mean?
Live singing or studio singing, which one is working better for you?
Right now, it's the time for live concerts. People are spending more than they ever have, especially Indians. Abroad, it's always been a culture. So live ka toh bilkul sahi time chal raha hai. Productions are getting bigger. We are almost – I wouldn't say we are there yet – shoulder-to-shoulder with international concerts. So many international artists coming. But to be fair, studio ke bina woh toh hoga hi nahi na, kyun ki jab tak studio mein jaake hit nahi gaoge tab tak tumhare concerts sell nahi honge. So, it's a very interrelated thing. And I'm so proud of my country for finally buying tickets and going out there. Indian artists are also getting to build that space with the audience and justifying it.
After working with LAUV on Rochak Kohli’s ‘DIl Na Jaaneya,’ are we going to hear of any more international collaborations? Or a wishlist perhaps?
Wishlist? Oh my god! Everybody, right now. These younger artists, the girls are killing it, whether that's Gracie (Abrams), whether that's Olivia (Rodrigo). I would just love to be in a studio with them and write music together. I wouldn’t go with the more traditional choices of Sabrina (Carpenter) or Dua Lipa. I would love to be on stage with them, but in a studio, Gracie and Olivia are killing it. Even KATSEYE in the live scene, the kind of work they’re doing.
Have you heard of Raye?
Oh, hell yeah. I've been obsessed with her since her “You Don’t Know Me” [her duet with Jax Jones] days. And this was, maybe, like 10 years back. But I don’t think she ever broke through in that sense. She was just on a lot of good songs, but I'm so glad her time is here because … THAT WOMAN! That one song has so many layers, every time I hear it, I hear different things. You see how women are like f***ing killing it right now? Next level.
Maybe this is the next generation of divas, right here? Who knows?
Hell yeah. And in songwriting and live, both!
What’s next?
I do have two releases. There's one, the just-released title song of Huma Qureshi’s “Baby Do Die Do” and another upcoming song. And they are releasing at the same time.
Anything in non-film?
There are one or two. I’m hoping, soon. I miss my banger music video, hot-look era, so… Hopefully, dropping one of those super soon. We need a party.
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