On the global scene, an Indian singer is a small fish in a big pond. It’s a huge struggle to establish even a toehold, but things are opening up.

Her voice is as well-tuned as her lithe, toned body. Shweta Shetty takes time off from minding the house in Hamburg to launch her new Indi-pop album.

"My soul is in Mumbai,” declares husky-voiced pop diva Shweta Shetty, as she twirls a strand of her long, curly hair. “I feel nostalgic about the city, its food, its parties, the familiar smells. In Germany, I celebrate Diwali with a card party, but instead of rummy, we play bridge. I cook a lot of Indian food.” And then excitedly, “You get everything out there – from kadipatta to dry red chillies. Indian cuisine is considered exotic.” Home, though, is no longer Mumbai. It’s Hamburg, where she lives with her German husband, Clemens Brandt. Shetty is back in India after two years (“which I spent pottering around the house, cooking and doing grocery shopping like a good housewife”) to promote her seventh album, Saajna, which she has produced. Clad in white, the colour of the season, with chunky silver jewellery and a Shiva bracelet as accessories, she looks relatively relaxed, giving no sign of the hectic schedule she has crammed into her days here. She talks animatedly, gesticulating and waving her hands to get her point across.

“Actually, I should give some credit to DJ Moody, who has composed the music,” she laughs. “He had been chasing me to do an album with him for a long time, and I kept wondering what kind of music I could make with a DJ. But my husband convinced me to give the poor man a chance!” The tunes he composed for two of her favourite songs, Dola Re and Dil Na Lage, made her loosen the purse strings and pour money into the venture. “Saajna is totally me! I had stayed away for so long because I was sick of doing all those Punjabi bhangras after the success of my film song Tote Tote. I was tired of the pathetic state of the Indian music industry, which signed on every Hardeep and Mandeep from Ludhiana to do a pop album. Most guys who manage artistes have no ear for music,” she fumes, her voice rising above the noise around. “I am glad people have wisened up to this rip-off act.”

She calls Saajna a blend of “rhythm and blues. I am a great fan of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston and it is my tribute to their kind of music.”

Internationally too, Shetty is now beginning to find her niche. On the anvil is an album with singer-performer Sarah Brightman in which she has sung some alaaps for a number composed by our very own A. R. Rahman, as well as one with German techno-band, Jam and Spoon, for which she has written and sung one song. Both are slated to hit the market in July. Yet, she admits, “On the global scene, an Indian singer is a small fish in a big pond. It’s a huge struggle to establish even a toehold, but things are opening up. People abroad are listening to more Brazilian, Mexican and Spanish sounds. In the next two years, the Indian rhythm would be either very big internationally or the music crossover trend, which began with Rahman, will fizzle out completely!”