Songwriter and singer Nimra Gilani, who performed and composed the haunting and arresting title track of Zindagi Tamasha, considers herself a songwriter first and a vocalist second.
Set to appear, also on the soundtrack of Sarmad Khoosat’s other film release of the 2020, Kamli, with a song called ‘Paani’, Nimra Gilani is more concerned with the dearth of female songwriters. She does want to pursue music. To that end, she is part of a six-member vocal ensemble act - who are presently working on their first project, a song which is 90 per cent acapella with minimal music, beatboxing, harmonizing – but also wants to add a voice to the songwriting process in Pakistan.
She co-wrote Saakin’s upcoming song with Ali Hamdani, who also happens to be her husband, with Saakin arranging the track.
Even though ‘Zindagi Tamasha Bani’ is a success, Nimra is not looking to be a solo vocalist,” she said. “It is very sad that Pakistan does not have a lot of female songwriters who are making music for other people.”
She continued, “We have people like Waqar Ali, we have lyricists like Sabir Zafar and a lot of male producers and lyricists and composers who have made entire careers for different rock stars of our country. But women haven’t done that. I want to be one of those songwriters who somebody could come to for a good song. I wish to do that. We have an awesome team; we have musicians like Varqa Faraid (on Coke Studio house band) and a part of Saakin; we have awesome producers like the young Shamsher Rana. He is only 23 years old and he’s doing wonders in music right now – working with every single director. We have a team. We wish to become that team that people could come for, for a big number, a beautiful song.”
As Nimra added, they’re not looking at it from monetary terms but a creative effort. “On the technical side, I see myself as a songwriter who is not only able to write songs for myself but others as well.”
Speaking about working with husband Ali Hamdani, Nimra revealed that they have been working and performing together since forever. “When we’re working together, we’re not husband and wife; we’re peers and my husband is very constructively critical of my work so am I and we have a great working dynamic,” she said. “I feel both these things should be separate to work in a good way and get good results.”
