Working with Rahman in 'Muhammad...' a learning experience: Natalie

Working with Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman, against whom a fatwa has been issued over "Muhammad: The Messenger Of God", was a learning experience for Canadian multi-lingual singer Natalie Di Luccio, who has sung an Arabic track in the film.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience moment for me. When I met him for the first time, I was shaking," Natalie, who had earlier worked with Rahman in S. Shankar's film "I", told IANS.

"I sang for his new film called 'Muhammad...'. The film has gone to film festivals and hasn't released in India yet. It's a big budget Iranian film and I had Arabic songs, so he helped me a lot.

"He helped me in pronunciation too," added Natalie, whose career got a kickstart when she began releasing music videos on YouTube. These were videos of Natalia singing Bollywood film songs.

She credits the online platform for lending visibility to her vocal talent.

"Nowadays you can control your career. Social media has helped in boosting the life of many singers. I feel really honoured that I made my own career, but it wasn't planned.

"When I first put my video on Youtube, there was not even one Bollywood cover, but now for every song there are a million renditions.

"Fortunately, YouTube gave me the platform to sell my albums like the way I wanted to," said Natalie, who also lent her voice to songs in films like "Band Baaja Baraat", "Ladies vs Ricky Bahl", "English Vinglish" and "Chennai Express".

Asked how she manages to sing in different languages without even knowing those languages, she said: "I always had to work extra hard for pronunciation, but I want to serve more people with my music and that's what I am doing."

Natalie was in Hong Kong - Asia's World City for the shooting of FOX Life's show "Life Mein Ek Baar", an adventure and travel-based show.

Back after three successful seasons, the show will feature three other celebrities apart from Natalie, on an adventure trip across Hong Kong. There are also popular names like Karan Kundra, Sana Saeed and Himarsha Venkatsamy.

From playing a game of rugby with the locals, to taking a Tai Chi class, to Dragon Boat racing and more -- the show will bring forth an exhilarating journey of the celebrities' stay in the country.

The show will premiere on October 20.

(The writer's trip was at the invitation of Hong Kong Tourism Board and FOX Life. Nivedita can be contacted at Nivedita.s@ians.in)