Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Manisha Eerabathini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Manisha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I grew up in the Bay Area, California and went to UC Berkeley, majoring in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. A child of Indian immigrants, my parents always had an interest in preserving the Indian culture in our family and enrolled me in classical Indian singing and dancing lessons when I was a child. I grew up learning the two art forms for years on a regular basis.

Singing and dancing had always been hobbies for myself until college when my dad encouraged me to audition for this Telugu singing reality TV show that was doing an exclusive US series that year. Telugu is the language of my family, originates from the Southern states of India – Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. I auditioned from my dorm’s music room right before Sophomore year ended, not thinking much of it.

A year later, I heard from them that I got selected for the competition! I was about to begin my software engineering internship for the summer and I was told this competition would be shot on the weekends for 5 weeks. Getting permission from my new boss, I was able to take 5 Fridays off for a day of rehearsals and then proceeded to shoot 6 episodes every weekend in various cities across America.

I ended up placing 4th in this competition which then aired on television throughout my senior year of college. After contemplating pursuing a full time software job post graduation, I decided that if I were to try and pursue in music, the time would be now. After a lot of thought, I graduated from college, packed my bags up and moved to Hyderabad, India in hopes of pursuing singing as my career.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Having grown up in the US as a second generation immigrant, it’s a bit unusual for people of my community to move back to India to pursue a career – we typically hear of people moving to the US for better opportunities, like my parents. When I initially made the move to India, I imagined it would be a year or two and I would get comments constantly of why I would want to go “backwards”. My entire decision to move to India and give it a shot at playback singing came from a place of careful calculation. I was at a point in my life where I was done with my education, I went to a reputed college, I was young and free of responsibility and most importantly, I did not want to regret not giving it a shot later in my life!

What I imagined to be a little while turned into 9 years! Initially, my goal was to try getting into the film industry, singing playback in Telugu films. Telugu films (think RRR or Baahubali) tend to have many songs in between the story so playback work can consist of solo songs, background score chorus, background score solos, track or composing work, etc. As I slowly found my footing in the industry, which turned out to be a lot slower of a process than I imagined, I also dabbled in voiceover work for films, TV shows and commercials along with vocals for commercials as well.

The playback field is essentially freelancing – you wait for a call, you wait for work to come to you. In the beginning, as I took a while to adjust to living in India, to the people, and to gain experience in the field, I began posting covers and mashups on my personal Youtube channel as a creative outlet. Something that I did out of pure passion ended up garnering a lot of attention and views. I essentially let my artistic side flow through this channel by posting musical content that I loved, that I could relate to. My Youtube channel today has almost 34 million views and 275k subscribers.

I got to a point in my career where I was able to sing some beautiful, successful film songs along with success on my own creative end. I have sung in huge, successful movies like RRR, Nenu Local, Ee Nagaraniki Em Aindhi, Bheemla Nayak, Sarkaaru Vari Paata, Leo, etc. Today, I have 900k listeners on Spotify and have also released two of my own original songs that I have composed and written. “Naalo Thapana” and “Manasara” are my 2 babies essentially, songs that truly express who I am – both songs are in half English and half Telugu, a true blend of my identity. They are 2 songs that I have truly manifested into this universe and have overseen and done from the idea in my head to the release. There is no greater feeling for a creative to have your own work go from an idea to a finished product and have it be appreciated by strangers!

I have also been performing for years now, touring the world with either various music directors like MM Keeravani, Thaman S, Devi Sri Prasad, etc. as well as on my own! I have also dabbled a little in acting where I took up small roles in Telugu movies like Fidaa and Veera Simha Reddy. I have also given my first ever TEDx talk for my dad’s alma mater in Hyderabad which was a very full circle life moment!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

A creative’s journey is typically not conventional and not well-known so many non-creatives may not understand what it is a creative does everyday or how they make money. Out of this inability to understand, many assumptions are made. When I first began my journey, my parents would get many questions like “when is she going to stop her hobby and get a real job”, “when is she coming back to America and stopping all that”, “why not go back to tech where there is more money to be made” etc. Most of these questions from non-creatives who didn’t understand the career to begin with but also didn’t understand how I could make a career out of it. I was determined to figure out how I could make playback a sustainable career. I wasn’t exactly sure how because there was no set trajectory or guidelines in my case but I knew I could figure it out. Today, I have made my passion a sustainable career and I continue to figure it out as the opportunities constantly change.

It’s important to note that social media in today’s age plays a huge role in a creative’s life: it’s almost like a resume for a creative so everyone as a result only sees the positive. A lot of people assume I’m “living the life” because I seem to travel a lot, I seem to be involved in cool, big movies, etc. and people as a result don’t see all the hard work that is done in order to create such opportunities but also the toll it takes on one’s life. The biggest difference of a creative’/freelancer’s journey versus a non-creative’s journey is the day-to-day uncertainty in what’s going to happen next, what opportunity is going to arise next. Something that I definitely think about and miss is the stability of a non-creative’s career!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist the impact we are able to create in people’s day to day lives – the human connection! In my opinion, there is nothing more rewarding than creating something from scratch and have complete strangers relate to it and appreciate it!

A pregnant lady once messaged me on Instagram and told me that every time she played a cover song I had released, her baby in her belly would kick constantly. I still remember that message to this day. I find myself so lucky to be able to musically impact a person’s mood and feelings everyday. It’s a gift I will always cherish!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manisha.eerabathini/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manisha.eerabathini/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/meerabathini?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRBEqPBoosM8AQflJtlEf6A
• Other: Tedx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQVwMnuQn5o&t=4s&ab_channel=TEDxTalks