'Never take any recording lightly': Shilpa Rao on how she bagged her first song Tose Naina from Anwar

Clearing long-standing confusion around her name, Shilpa revealed that she was always “Shilpa” at home. “I was born as Shilpa at home,” she said, explaining how names were often decided informally at birth. The name Apeksha, she shared, entered her life later. “Apeksha was when I went to school and you had to write a proper name.” While her school certificates still carry Apeksha Rao, official documents like her passport read Shilpa Rao.

The decision to embrace Shilpa came when she was around 15 or 16. “When the passport was being made, I said, ‘I want to change my name.’” The reason was deeply emotional. “Apeksha was a heavy duty name… expectation hi hai,” she said, adding that she was never someone who thrived under pressure. “I’m somebody who likes to be in the background, doing your thing… not bogged down with a lot of expectations.”

When asked about her first song Tose Naina from Anwar that turned into a major hit, Shilpa detailed how she bagged it and how it turned into a life changing moment for her. She said, "This was my first song, and many don’t realise it was a Mithoon composition for Manish Jha’s film Anwar. While the film may not be widely remembered, the song is still hummed everywhere and is the first one we start every concert with. I admired Mithoon’s unique musical sensibility from my college days and reached out to him with a demo CD, as was common then. Later, he called me to try a scratch track for Anwar. Manish loved the first recording, which was kept as the final version, even the outro humming came from that take. It taught me to never take any recording lightly."

On finding her voice with her father's training

Shilpa also spoke candidly about learning music under her father’s strict guidance. “My father had a hard time teaching me music,” she admitted, calling the relationship a “very difficult balance.” One incident remains vivid in her memory. “He came into my room and tore all my posters… Led Zeppelin, Leonardo DiCaprio.” His reason was simple. “Do you realise you have not practiced in a week?”

For years, Shilpa believed success would make her father happy. “If I get my first break he would be happy… if I got that many awards he would be happy.” But she later realised that wasn’t true. “He is only happy if I have the yearning to learn more,” she said. “If I go to him like, ‘Dad, I want to learn this,’ he would be happy.”

Compares her father to Aamir Khan from Dangal

Describing her father as “like Aamir Khan from Dangal,” she shared how music was never treated as a hobby at home. “Someone asked me, ‘What are your hobbies?’ I said music. He was so pissed off. He said, ‘This is not your hobby.’” Today, she understands why. “I don’t have any hobbies. I do everything as if it is the main thing, even if I watch a film, I use that into my music.”

Through discipline, conflict and deep emotional learning, Shilpa Rao found not just her voice, but her identity, one rooted in sincerity, curiosity and an unending desire to learn.