Tulsi Kumar on Tere Naal: I will remember this song forever!

By Bryan Durham - July 2, 2020

Tulsi Kumar’s first duet with Darshan Raval was also the first collaboration of hers where she was so involved in the making of an independent single (by her own admission). This interview has been a long time pending and here it finally is. Tulsi’s version of the making of Teri Naal.

How did Tere Naal come to be, how did the song come to you?

Sometime in February, I met up with Darshan Raval. We met through our management teams and we decided about coming together for a song. It was just a brief meeting that we had and that’s where the whole idea came about. 


Two days after that, I met Darshan again and we went back to his studio where he played me something and that was the first draft of Tere Naal, it just had the hook line there and I absolutely loved it. I also hummed a line or two (like a jam kinda thing) and then, we left it there. 

I returned to Delhi and the lockdown happened, so I couldn’t really go back to Mumbai, but Darshan and I stayed connected over the phone and took the song ahead. 

Please continue…

We developed the ‘antara’ together. Since it was our first collaboration together, we went hand-in-hand for everything that was required for the song; whether it was the lyrics or anything else about the song or anything about the melody. Darshan has composed the song himself, so the involvement was there right from Day 1. It developed and when it came to recording — I have a little studio in my house which isn’t meant for professional performing — we decided let’s just record this song in the lockdown itself.


I arranged for a microphone, I set it up, got my sound engineer on video call; kaafi drama gaya hain is gaane main. 

Could you elaborate?

Making this song happen during lockdown has a full story behind it and I think that’s what brings us even closer to the song, because we’ve all been so personally involved in every step. I recorded the song and I sent it to Darshan and he really liked the vocals and everything fell in place and then we were contemplating whether we should do the video now or wait for the lockdown to get raised so we can shoot properly, but then we came to the decision, that why not give something to our fans during lockdown, because this is the time when good music and anything happy and positive will help people out there.


As musicians, we all have been doing a lot of concerts for the PM Cares fund and all, keeping everything in mind, so we thought let’s give it a shot and try and shoot it at our home with no entourage, we’ll just have one person to shoot it and let’s just try and do something that people might like. That’s how the idea of the video came about. Darshan shot it from Mumbai and I shot it from Delhi and we got it edited. The whole coordination that happened during the video was a lot of fun, every time I would shoot in Delhi, he would shoot in Bombay, we’d shoot from 7 am to 7 pm, following all the rules of the lockdown we made this video, with no makeup and hair, I did everything myself. This song I will remember forever, it will always remain very special; the lockdown love, long distance love song will always be special to me. 

Speaking of memories, which is the one line from the song that is your absolute favourite? 

The full song is my favourite, but Baadalon ko aasmaan se, jodti jo dor hai, Ik pyar hi to hai is something that I love. It’s never been said before and it has a very deep meaning. 

Will we be hearing more such independent music from you? 

Definitely, I think the satisfaction that independent music gives me (I have done a lot of independent stuff before, it’s not been full-fledged) and it’s the need of the hour. You need to make a space of your own song and that’s the whole point of independent music. I’ve already worked on something that you’ll be seeing soon, there is a lot of independent music coming up for my audience. 

Would you consider composing at some point in time?

Hopefully. I’ve been trying till now, I’ve been inspired to, looking at Darshan. I always look at people and wonder how they do it and they always say, “It comes to me”. So, I guess I’ll wait for the day it ‘comes to me’. The more years you are in the industry, surrounded by so many people, you draw insights and learn. I’m sure somewhere down the line I will evoke that feeling in me and get into it soon.


3 songs of your own that you will sing at every gig once lockdown ends? Tere Naal, of course. Phir Na Mile Kabhi Reprise, which I love and Teri Ban Jaungi. 

3 things you never leave home without? My mobile phone, my closet keys, a bottle of water. 

