Monica Dogra Rock N Roll Goddess

From live gigs to TV reality shows and even the big screen, Monica Dogra’s charismatic presence owns the stage. And she’s just getting started

- Nivedita Jayaram Pawar

Monica Dogra has all the pre requisites of a front woman: alternative beauty, a feisty attitude and impeccable chords. Added to that is an intangible charisma that explodes when she performs: An indefinable magnetism that sets her apart from many of her male and female counterparts. Monica is not modest either: “My artistic legacy is evident even if I am photographed in underwear or in a dress.”

A Kashmiri by birth, Monica was born and raised in Hunt Valley, Maryland, in Baltimore. She earned her musical chops at NYU. To pay for college Monica would wait tables and bartend. It was while bartending at a rock and roll spot that she discovered Velvet Revolver and The Donnas. This was a turning point in her artistic journey. “I realised I had a lot of punk energy inside me. When Shaa’ir + Func formed, I began to channel it all and was able to turn it into something wonderful.”

Monica did not grow up on hard rock, but on jagratas, church choirs and antakshari with the family. “Before I could walk, I’d hold myself up with whatever furniture was nearby and bop around to Michael Jackson. When I read my diaries from when I was six years old, I always said I wanted to make up stories, sing and dance.” She even organised a theatre group in her neighbourhood when she was barely eight. With her mom being a singer, it was Hindustani classical music at home. But these forms felt foreign to this Dhobi Ghat actor who was searching for an artistic language that mirrored her identity. “The first artists I loved and could relate to were Akram Khan, Nitin Sawhney, Karsh Kale, Talvin Singh and Mira Nair. When I stumbled upon these artists, my hunger to be a creator became insatiable. I knew art had the capacity to represent people’s condition and offer them companionship and comfort. I wanted to make art that did the same for others all over the world.”