MUMBAI: After singing a dozen songs in Bollywood, pop singer Neha Bhasin is now elbowing her way into the south Indian music industry.

The singer entered the Tamil music industry in 2007 with Satham Podathey, the music for which was given by Yuvan Shankar Raja. She also won the Reliance Mobile Vijay TV Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song 'Pesugiren Pesugiren' from the film. "I entered the Tamil industry by chance. My voice was liked in Pesugiren Pesugiren and I bagged several projects post it," says the singer who also sung the energetic number 'Sei Yethaavathu' for Billa. "The film was on the lines of Don and the track Sei was equivalent to Yeh Mera Dil from the Hindi version." The singer went on to do several projects with Yuvan which includes Muthirai and Yogi 

Bhasin now has several more Tamil projects lined up including Yuvan's Valluvarkottam to release in May. "My work in Tamil has been appreciated a lot. I have even done some live shows where I was the only non-Tamil speaking artiste amongst some indigenous musicians from South including Shruti Hassan, Vijay Prakash."

In Bollywood, the singer has sung for Vishal-Shekhar for an untitled project. She is also geared up for her album which will be released in May-June. The untitled project will see Gaurav Dayal compose music for it where as the singer would be also pen the lyrics for it. Dayal has earlier given music for several artistes like Mika and Jassi. His compositions were also heard in Onir's 'Sorry Bhai'.

Talking further about the album which contains eight songs, Bhasin says, "It is a multi-genre album. It took us a really long time to compose the album. Hence our mood at the particular time is reflected in the tracks. From soft rock to Punjabi number the album has it all. My personal favourite is a grunge track titled 'Tabah' which talks about today's women's ability to move on with life." The singer also revealed that she is in talks with International rapper Wyclef Jean for a collaboration for a track in the album. "He wants me to come to America and record the song. So if things work out well we might feature the track in the album." Bhasin is also contemplating incorporating a Tamil song in the album. "I have received so much appreciation from the industry hence I might integrate a Tamil song."

The singer is also very positive about launching the album at this time when the non-film album genre is not doing well and Bollywood seems to be way ahead in competition. Talking passionately about the non-film genre the singer adds, "Any time is a good time to take a risk. It is not that non-film genre is not producing good music, it is not being marketed well. Music promotions for films have much larger budgets than that allocated to the albums. Music channels are consumed by Bollywood which buys lots more spots than an album."

Lamenting the sorry state of non-film genre in music, she adds, "We all are to be blamed for the doomed genre including the television channels for not giving enough air-time to good content. We need to come out with new models to make it work. Even we as artistes need to come out of our comfort zone. Film music will always continue, but we need to come up with non-Bollywood music in intervals to satisfy our creative needs. I would keep doing films but I cant turn a blind eye towards a genre that was the stepping stone to my career."  

Bhasin who was a product of reality show phenomenon is not keen on taking up the television shows as of now. Says the singer who was last seen in Real's 'Sitaroon ko choona hai' as a mentor, "If I get an offer as a judge or mentor I would consider it but not as a participant. I am not ready to hear criticism for host of people at this stage of my career."

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