Anu Malik's daughter graduates to songwriting

Mumbai: She made her singing debut four years ago when she was all of 16. And now Anmol Malik, daughter of Bollywood composer Anu Malik, has penned her first song 'Graduation', which has already found an admirer in actor Aamir Khan who 'liked' it and posted it on his Facebook fan page.

The English track was recently released online.

"This is a song which is close to my heart and I felt that the best way to express it would be in English; so I wrote it," Anmol told IANS.

"The concept of the song is graduation. I wrote it when I was graduating, but the whole point of the song is to graduate from something in life. Cross a finish line, then look back and realise that you've left a lot of things behind and created many memories. That was the reason I wrote the song," the 20-year-old said.

Anmol made her playback debut with the song 'Agle janam mohe bitiya na kijo' in the 'Umrao Jaan' of 2005 and then went on to croon the famous 'Talli' from the film 'Ugly Aur Pagli' (2008).

'Graduation' has been produced by Anmol's father.

"I remember making dad hear the song and all he told me was 'I really like it and want to produce it' which was a big thing for me. His judgments are usually very harsh... he is a very hard taskmaster," said the budding singer.

"My dad gave me full creative freedom with the song and he's believed my every word. He saw my creative potential and just let me do what I wanted. He didn't interfere in any which way," she added.

Anmol was also in for a surprise when superstar Aamir Khan liked her song and posted it on his Facebook fan page.

"I was taken aback. I was happy that he took a fancy to the song. I never thought he would like it or give it a listen. He heard it and he liked it. I am so indebted to Aamir sir for doing that," she said.

The singer says "Graduation" is not a commercial song.

"... It's not a love song or a song on a very commercial topic but it's something that happens to everyone. So I really want people to hear it. I never wrote it with a commercial point of view, to make money out of it. I just wrote it because I felt very strongly about something. That's why I decided to launch it online," she said.

"I completely understand that film songs are the most important ones because of the exposure. But once in a while when a song like this comes along, which is offbeat, I really hope people do respect that someone has attempted to do something different," she added.