Popular Indo – Canadian YouTube artist, Jonita Gandhi, will soon be seen performing at the highly anticipated YouTube Fan Fest, to be held in Mumbai for the second year on 20 March. From garnering praise and appreciation from ‘Mozart of Madras’ - AR Rahman to earning her debut playback singing stint with Vishal Shekhar for the title track of ‘Chennai Express’, Gandhi has come a long way.

In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com, Gandhi speaks about her fun filled collaboration with the Aakash Gandhi and Bryden and Part, musical journey and more.

How does it feel to be part of the You Tube Fan Fest for the 2nd consecutive year?

It feels great to be able to connect with my fans at YouTube Fan Fest once again this year. Seeing and hearing the excitement in the audience is so thrilling. I am looking forward to performing along with the really amazing artists in this year’s line up! I have been getting an overwhelming response to the contests that I have been running to give out free passes, and I am super excited for the show.

What has changed over the past one year?

This past year has been unbelievable! I have had a lot of great opportunities and experiences over the last year, but one of the biggest achievements for me has been putting my own band together, here in India. I have had a few Bollywood playback songs release since last year’s Fan Fest performance, including ‘Maloom’ and ‘Tassali’ from the movie ‘Lekar Hum Deewana Dil’, and ‘Dil Chaspiya’ from ‘Kochadaiyaan’. I also had two solo songs ‘Aabhi Jaa’ and ‘Geet Gaaon’ released on AR Rahman Sir’s independent album ‘Raunaq’. In addition to performing with Sonuji regularly around the world, I have had the great pleasure of performing with AR Rahman Sir, Salim-Sulaiman, and Amit Trivedi

How is 2015 shaping up for you?

2015 has been a blast so far! It has been performance after performance for me and I have had many great opportunities come my way as well. There is a lot coming out soon, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year has in store.

Where do we see Jonita going next?

I like to take things one step at a time and enjoy each phase of life as it comes. I hope to keep pushing forward and growing with my career and look forward to great opportunities to come. 

Any offers on playback singing?

I have a couple tracks from films coming out in the near future, including Rahman Sir's latest venture with Mani Ratnam Sir, ‘OK Kanmani’.

Do you have any Bollywood acting plans?

I think acting would be fun! Back in Toronto I had a great time acting as the lead in a Bollywood dance musical.  Although I am quite focussed on my music career, I also enjoy the taste of acting that I get from my music videos. So who knows? If the opportunity knocks at my door, why not?

When not recording, what do you do?

Although I spend a lot of time rehearsing and prepping for shows, recordings and video shoots, I enjoy my down time as much as anyone else. Sometimes I just like to catch up on sleep since that is the biggest challenge of travelling frequently. Not just sleep, but catching up on regular daily life chores is also something I feel like I run out of time for. But otherwise, I like hanging out with my friends and doing the normal hang-out things like movies, dinners, comedy shows and all.