Ila Arun

Trivia

• She has also acted in critically acclaimed films such as China Gate, Chingari, and the most recent Welcome to Sajjanpur.
• Illa has recently delivered an electrifying performance in the 2008 hit Jodhaa Akbar as Maham Anga, Akbar's wet nurse, who is also like Akbar's mother.
• She recently sang the promotional song Halla Bol for the Rajasthan Royals team in the IPL which became an instant hit.
• Illa will appear in NDTV Imagine's reality show Junoon-Kuch kar dikhana hai as a judge for the folk-singers team Maati ke laal.
• Her fans await her comeback as she left after her album Haule Haule protesting music piracy and remixes and sexual content in songs.
• She has produced several successful singles such as "Vote for Ghagra", which sold more than 100,000 copies,Morni,Main ho gayi sawa lakh ki,Mera Assi Kali ka Ghagra,Darudi, Bichuda,Main Raatan Jagi etc.
• Illa has won one Filmfare Best Female Playback Award in 1994 for the song "Choli Ke Peeche" from the film Khalnayak.
• In the Sony Entertainment Television show Fame Gurukul,Illa was the headmistress of the school where the contestants of the show trained for the reality singing show.
• Ila Arun is a popular Indian actor, TV personality and a folk/folk-pop singer with a unique, husky voice and a penchant for folk-pop fusion.

Quotes

• "Such numbers are very popular abroad," she points out. "So in every album, I make it a point to carry a message for the Indian immigrants, saying that their country needs them back. But would you believe it, my biggest fans are not foreigners or NRIs, but the humble nomads of the Rajasthan desert!"
• "I say nothing in the songs has been tampered with. It is only the packaging that is different."
• "People accuse me of compromising the essence of folk tunes."
• "The thing about us Indians is that we haven't got over our herd mentality."
• "I was amazed at the number of sound-alikes who came up after me and all of them were getting opportunities for playback singing. Anyway, by then, I had already started recording for non-film albums."
• "Initially I could feel the resistance to my songs because I did not sound like Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle," narrates Ila. "Right then, I had decided not to be a copycat like the other female singers of the time. I figured out that if I had to make a name for myself, it would be on the strength of my own voice."
• "I used to take the bus from Delhi during week-ends to visit my parents in Jaipur," recalls Ila. "That was when I did all my research on Rajasthani folk. I used to spend hours outside the tents of those nomads listening to their songs and recording them."
• "This is the first time I have worked with a south Indian composer who is amazingly in total grips with the nuances of north Indian folk traditions. For me, the experience was like pilgrimage-cum-voyage of discovery!"