“When I first heard the news yesterday evening, I couldn’t believe it,” reveals Jayashri Ramnath, popularly known as Bombay Jayashri. She has written the lyrics and sung the song Pi’s lullaby for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, and has been nominated for the Academy Award in the Original Song category, for the song, whose music was scored by Mychael Danna.

“I have informed most of my near and dear ones, and they are all very happy,” adds Jayashri. She lived in Chembur in Mumbai for the first 20 years of her life, before moving to Chennai. Speaking to us from Chennai, she said that she was approached to do the song about two years back. “The producers had heard my work and they approached me. I worked on the lyrics slowly and we recorded the song in three to four days,” she says.

Ask her what she loves about the song and she says, “The song was not just there in the movie. When I was told about it, it was about what importance it has in the story. The director (Ang Lee) was very clear with what he wanted from the song and that was clearly told to me,” she adds.