Singer-actor Tia Bajpai is back yet again with a Punjabi Remix of the popular song ‘Jugni Ji’ having crossed the 3 million mark already, since its release this week.

Born and brought up in Lucknow singer-actor Tia Bajpai has grown up listening to ghazals inspired by Mehendi Hassan Saheb, Pankaj Udhas and Celine Dion, which makes her a versatile singer. She has worked with giants like Vikram Bhatt in Haunted and Ekta Kapoor in ‘Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu thi’. The versatile singer-actor throws light on her latest release Jugni and her Bollywood journey in an interesting conversation.

Tia boasts of a loud clear and sonorous voice, that is just apt for a song like Jugni, which tells about her sound training in music. Talking about her musical taleem Tia says, “Music was always there in the family, since both my parents are musicians. I used to sit with them at the age of 3 and listen to them. Eventually, as I grew up I attended my music school in the evening after my regular school and learnt classical music for almost 13 years.”

She tells about how did Jugni happen, and what was the thought process behind creating it, ‘So I Loved Jugni since my childhood it being a traditional Punjabi Sufi song and I always wanted to create my own version of Jugni. I wanted to present Jugni to the younger generation as a mix of family, youth, old and new, and so even in the music video, we have tried to show all the generations.’ 

Jugni is a remake of the popular Punjabi folk Heer remake has been Produced by Billionaer & Maximum Risk Entertainment, Composed by Arian Romal, and Rewritten by Tia Bajpai. Talking about incorporating her lyrics to the original song, she tells how her version differs from the original, ‘So we have only taken the catch line ‘Ae we maula ali wali jugni ji’ from the original song, but rest I have written my lyrics for the song like, ‘Jugni chali kis des, Jugni nu bhanda na apna bhes. Bazi ishq di kheli na, Ishq nahi koi khel. When I wrote it I wanted to portray the idea that in today's world love has become a joke and that’s why I wrote the lines ‘Ishq nahi koi khel.”

Tia shares her journey from changing her name from Twinkle to Tia, which she was given by the veteran Director Vikram Bhatt Saheb, she says, ‘It was when I was about to start shooting for Haunted and so he told me that people might confuse me with twinkle Khanna, and wanted me to have a unique name and named me Tia. In fact, my mother also liked the name because Tia in Bengali is a parrot.”

How did her stint with Saregamapa give her the biggest exposure, she says, ‘I always wanted to come to Mumbai and so when it happened it was actually a dream come true moment. I participated in Antakshari and from there they spotted me and I auditioned for Saregamapa, when Ismail Darbar was my judge and they loved my voice. With the grace of God I won Saregamapa, while in the next season, I was a finalist, so it has been a beautiful journey.’

It was a great transformative journey for Tia from being a singer to an actor, so how did it happen, she says, ‘In fact acting chose me, and I feel I have been blessed and I thank my destiny. I came from Lucknow and had no background in acting. I used to receive compliments for my looks and was told that I should try acting, but I never took it seriously because being a Bollywood actor means a very big thing. But, then by the grace of God ‘Haunted’ happened and that impossible dream became a reality.’

So how did her transformation from Music to acting happen she says, “When I started acting I portrayed every character as how I (twinkle) would act in a particular situation. I believe as an actor you have to get into the character and you need to retain your essence and your personality while playing it. I have played a variety of roles but especially acting as a ghost in Haunted was absolute fun, as when I first looked at my make-up I got scared myself.’

Tia concludes with her upcoming projects in the pipeline, ‘Jugni just released and I am also launching my own genre of music ‘Desi Slap House Music’ – It’s when the beats slap your soul, it's like wakeup I’m here.  Apart from that, I have two films in Pipeline which are projects with very good stories and star cast and I am also working with a couple of brands.’

Talking concludes by telling about her inspirations in the industry and whom she dreams of working with in future, saying “I think I am my Inspiration, but I dream of working with Mr. Shah Rukh Khan because he is Bollywood itself.”