By Ekatmata Sharma

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS): Namit Das is popularly known as a proficient actor, however very few know that he is a talented singer as well.

The actor played pivotal roles in 'Wake up Sid', 'Ankhon Dekhi', 'Sui Dhaaga', 'Pataakha', 'Aarya', 'A Suitable Boy' amongst others.

Hailing from a family of musicians, Namit is a trained singer and took classical music training from his father Chandan Dass, a reputed ghazal singer, and Bhavdeep Jaipurwale, classical vocalist. His younger brother Anshul Nautiyal is an underground music producer in Delhi.

Coming from a family of talented musicians, Namit chose acting over music, due to certain circumstances. In a candid chat with IANS, he shared: "I think circumstances lead you to different places and acting happened really in an accidental way. Music wasn't working out during college times. So, I just tried out acting in the theatre and before I knew it, I was doing professional plays and people seem to like me. It was one play after the other as a professional actor. I was already working at the professional level in college as well. That's my little story of choosing acting over music. Music also found a way in my life because of theatre."

Namit has a long list of musicians in his family. Namit's maternal grandfather K. Pannalal was a renowned musician and worked for All India Radio and DD. One of his maternal uncles, Jaidev Kumar, is a famous Punjabi music director, and another uncle Ajay K. Pannalal, a Punjabi film director.

The actor could not stay away from singing for long and debuted as a vocalist composer in 2014. He collaborated with guitarist-producer Anurag Shanker to create his debut EP 'Din Gaye'.

Talking about his first stint as a professional singer, he elaborated, "Well the history behind that EP is that Anurag came for a play of mine. He saw that play and he really liked it. He came backstage, I told him that will be great if we can do something together. As luck would have it, he was working on the music of 'Suleimani Keeda' and he called me for a song."

He continued "That's what gave rise to our association and which eventually give birth to this EP. It was released in 2014, but it's still very fresh. People still keep writing to me and putting up posts about it."

The actor has also toured as a performing singer on stage. "Two years back when Covid-19 had not hit us, we were touring with our band singing the songs." He continued "Right now we should be coming out with another album. We are focusing on it, but under the current circumstances where we can't meet and record together. It's very difficult to produce that album. Let us see, I think we will get something out either this year or at least by mid-next year for sure."

On the acting front, Namit has his kitty full of interesting projects.

Sharing about his upcoming work, he said, "I am looking forward to a show called 'Dhunali' which will complete by the end of October. I am doing a Netflix show called 'Chuna' which I am very excited about. As its great writing and it is directed by Pushpendra Nath Mishra. There is 'Rocket Boys' where I am playing a very interesting part."