We meet Shibani Kashyap while she is getting ready for an interview with a popular TV channel on a muggy Wednesday afternoon. The camera crew dismantles her house without her permission and she isn't exactly happy. But that doesn't affect her enthusiasm.

"People are talking about my music and the fact that even though I am not being a song-making factory," she continues, "my songs make people sway."

Shibani hit the Indian music scene with her album Ho Gayi Hai Mohabbat in the year 1998 and her most recent hit Zinda hoon main kis ke liye from the film Zinda is still doing the rounds.

Fondly labelled as India's Sheryl Crow, Shibani is a great fan of rock star Sting. "My favourite Sting number is Englishman in New York," she says.

Like Sting, Shibani has also carved out a niche for herself in the Indian music industry with her steely voice - as a singer, performer and composer.

Hit factory  

There are difficulties in making it big in the music industry and she is outspoken about them.

"Even if my last song was a success it doesn't mean that I am here to stay. It means my sustenance would be even more difficult because the audience would expect my next song to either equal that hit or be a larger one," she adds.

Shibani believes that a lot goes into making a song a hit. Marketing and publicity of the song is as important as composing it. 

"I would call it nurturing the song, because only if it is channelised in the proper way will it reach the audience. It is a challenge because as a performer I have to go place to place to popularise it more," she claims. 
 
Woman on top

Is it tough being a woman in this industry?

"As a composer it is a male-dominated industry. Sometimes you do end up feeling what I am doing here, I should just be singing or performing but then I believe in taking it head on," Shibani suggests. 

Would she choose to be someone else then? "There are times when you don't get the right kind of acknowledgement just because I am a woman. But I am happy the way I am, to face the challenges I do," she adds.
  
For making it big in the music industry Shibani recommends that it is most important to be original.

"Establish your own style and it will take you a long way," she goes on, "After that is done, go on to establish your style through the way you dress, the way you speak, your appearance and so on."

About making hay while the sun shines, she alerts, "Make most of the opportunities that come by your way but be careful to differentiate from good and bad."