Rashi Mal: Independent music is challenging, but it pays off if you stay true to your art

Along with acting, Rashi Mal, known for her roles in Helicopter Eela, Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva and web series like Boygiri and Hindmata, is equally passionate about music. She enjoys translating her life experiences into lyrics and melodies, and her latest offerings are Stay in English and Na Jaa in Hindi.

On why she chose to craft the same song in two languages, she says, “Stay was the first song I ever wrote. When I thought about releasing it, I realised that while the English version is beautiful, in a predominantly Hindi-speaking country we also needed a Hindi version. Portraying the duality of love itself excited me. Love can bring us so much joy and yet break our hearts with equal intensity. These songs are two sides of the same coin. The common thread in both is hope — it sustains us when things are hard and leads us to all that is good in life.”

The concept of the music videos also explores human emotions in the age of technology. Rashi explains, “We looked at our growing attachment to artificial intelligence and flipped it. The videos tell the story of a home AI and its relationship with its owner — her joy in its presence and grief in its absence. Ultimately, any work of art should make us feel something and think more deeply about our lives. That’s what I hope these songs achieve.”

While Stay carries a sense of hope, Na Jaa embodies longing. How did she manage to evoke opposite emotions within the same melody? Rashi shares, “The emotional colours were naturally incidental effects of the different languages. Saying ‘I love you’ in English feels different from saying ‘Main tumse pyaar karti hoon’ in Hindi. The Hindi carries more weight. So it wasn’t deliberate, it was innate.”

She brought this duality visually into the music videos as well. “Because the songs are emotional opposites, the videos had to reflect that. The premise and characters remain the same, but one video shows a love story fulfilled while the other tells a tale of love lost. We used vibrant colours for one and black-and-white for the other. Since we created them entirely with green screen and AI, I had to rely on my imagination as a performer. Being an actor definitely helped in portraying those contrasting emotions,” she says.

When asked about the independent music path, Rashi says, “For me, it’s about working with people who believe in your unique voice. If you find that with a label, great. If not, doing it on your own is better. It’s more challenging, but I truly believe persistence and consistency pay off.”

Looking ahead, she says, “My style keeps evolving with time, but if I had to name a few dream collaborators, I’d say A.R. Rahman, Arijit Singh, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, and Maroon 5.”




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