Shruti Haasan on her new single ‘Monster Machine‘, her ambition, and breaking boundaries

Shruti Haasan candidly discusses her music, her new single ‘Monster Machine’, and her fashion choices. She talks about her ambition to break her internal boundaries and her label BLCK, which she co-founded with her partner Santanu Hazarika. She also talks about her upcoming projects, including Salaar and her first independent English film, The Eye.

When Shruti Haasan talks about her music, she is candid, and introspective. “It is very personal,” she says. “I like playing in the shadows, the darkness people avoid. That’s where I found my solace and peace… as a musician, human being, and a woman.” 

We meet the the actor, singer, and composer at a quaint, sunshine-filled cafe on the terrace of the Raaj Kamal Films office in Alwarpet. She is visibly enthused about her new single, ‘Monster Machine’, described as a “dark, feminine cry of self-love”. The music video features Shruti in four different looks. I need a monster… I need a beast. To search me out and pull me in, to give me what I need, her four personas in the song, croon.

She brings up a conversation with her partner, artist Santanu Hazarika, where she remembers telling him how she does not need a man and is not interested in talking about conventional roles. “So what do I need? I need someone to match my ‘Monster’, and the idea for a song grew out of this conversation. I sat at the piano then and played the first few lines,” she recalls, discussing the song’s beginnings. 

Shruti’s fashion choices and her persona have often been a topic of public discussion, and she does not shy away from bringing this up when she discusses identity. “I am an ‘urban witch’, and I love it,” she says, without missing a beat. For her, the new song is a culmination of all of this. ”The verse is almost like poetry, inviting the audience in through a narrative that applies universally.”

Recurring themes

Celebrating women, and their ambitions, achievements and desires have always featured prominently in her music. From the 2016 single ‘My Day in the Sun’ to the 2022 music video ‘She is a hero’, this is a recurring theme, which is not surprising given how deeply she feels about being stereotyped and boxed in. “Even within the sisterhood of women, there is an unspoken code of what the ‘right woman’ is. We are deterred from showing rage. Even irritability is unbecoming. This anger, despair, that’s what drives women to great achievements,” she says. 

For‘Monster Machine’, Shruti worked with friends and long-time music collaborators Karan Kanchan and Karan Parikh to create something she says almost feels cinematic. “A song that makes one want to dance to it till the very end, but also feels like a movie score.”