toi finds out on how singers are adapting to the demands of changing timessingers today apart from specialising in classical music also render commercial film numbers that work big time at the box office experts say that to be good at both is an art by itself and one that needs to be mastered while classical music is about unleashing creative ideas playback demands adherence to the composers rules here are some singers who are handling the two in style anuradha sriram despite ruling the roost in the playback scene is a classical musician at heart im a classical musician doing playback singing she explains my tryst with classical music started way before playback happened during the season i do not avoid film recordings because you need to be available when composers call you the scenario in music today is such that if its not you its someone else when i started off i used to try striking that balance but ive proved my mettle im now not under the pressure of losing a song detachment sets in as we do it like a job get into a studio learn record and get out until the song becomes a hit we dont hear of it voice culture has never been an issue for me thats because as i sing along with my husband i can adapt to higher and lower registers demanded by the two styles classical music will always remain my core saindhavi and vinaya who are from the current crop of singers echo similar opinions says saindhavi both of us began performing kutcheris much after gaining popularity through playback i have been performing at devotionalsemiclassical concerts for the longest time last season i found it difficult to manage recordings and concerts there are times when i have to finish a kutcheri and rush for a film concert but with time and experience we learn to accommodate the two together adds vinaya the advantages are aplenty film singing gives us publicity and hence organisers from sabhas take note and call us the disadvantage is that listeners come with a preconceived notion about playback singers they tell us we know youre doing well with film singing we want to know if you are doing justice to classical music were happy that we have received more compliments than brickbatsfor mahathi the music season calls for a balancing act im very happy that people who come for my carnatic concerts do not come keeping my film songs in mind in fact some of the rasikas dont even know which film songs ive sung she says during the season she strives to balance both the musical worlds last year i had to rush for a film song recording immediately after a carnatic concertdid you knowthe popular carnatic song nee thayaratha in vasanthabhairavi was translated into tamil as un dayavillaya for the film sindhu bhairavifollow us on twitter for more stories