EXCLUSIVE| Tareefan singer Lisa Mishra on landing Call Me Bae: 'I've been auditioning for 6 years'

For singer Lisa Mishra, who recently made her acting debut as Harleen in Call Me Bae, the main attraction was a simple point – that the character seemed like a woman who everyone knows.

"When I read the character brief, I was really attracted to the fact that she seems like a woman we all know. She is someone who is trying to juggle it all. She has this tough exterior on the professional front, but she also has to deal with personal life issues and a toxic boyfriend. So many of the strongest women we know usually have the hardest things happening at home, so I think it just resonated with me, it's a familiar story of most women I know. I have also been in that position where externally things are great in your work life but personally, it's very tough," she said in an exclusive interview with WION.

But Mishra didn't land the part overnight. "There were many failed auditions before Call Me Bae, I think things just happen when they are meant to," she said, adding, "I have auditioned for six years and five years into the audition process is when I gotCall Me Bae. Luckily, I got it after the first audition and before that, I had auditioned for many projects and have been rejected many many times. I think this was just the strongest fit and maybe the direction and casting team saw some potential in me."

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The actor-singer believes that her entry into the entertainment industry was bound to happen since she has always loved entertaining and performing for people. Mishra grew up singing and performing on stage, and when she moved to Mumbai, she started her audition journey, many of which were kept under wraps.

"Once I moved to Mumbai, we started getting more calls for auditions. It didn't work out for many years because I don't think it was the right time, I wasn't prepared. I think my Hindi wasn't strong enough and my accent wasn't correct enough to authentically sound Indian. But all the years I spent preparing paid off," Mishraexplained, adding that she didn't tell anyone that she was auditioning all these years. "Only my manager knew... sometimes even my team didn't even know I was giving auditions. It was just me and my manager - we would wing it. We were hoping one day someone will see potential in me and get me on set."

Mishra, who always wanted to be a voice actor, even before she harboured aspirations of becoming a singer and actor, credits the 2018 Veere Di Wedding song 'Tareefan' for the visibility and the access that she has now.



"I don't think I would have been here without that moment and that song, maybe I would be but not in the same way. I have worked for so long trying to crack this space, I didn't think it would be in such a big way. I thought I would be putting out YouTube videos for years and if it catches someone's eye, the maximum I could see for my future was maybe one song that I could sing for Bollywood. I didn't think I would have an entire career in the industry. So, everything I have had since that moment, I owe it to that moment," explained Mishra, who has also lent her voice to tracks like 'The Wakhra Song' and 'Nadaaniyaan'.

Even though a considerable amount of time has passed, Mishra still remembers the shoot of the star-studded song with the likes of Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania.

"It was so long ago but I still vividly remember feeling like a fish out of water because I didn't understand when I moved here that I would be interacting with people like this, much less be on screen with them, because we shot the music video with all the girls from the movie," she recalled.

However, this isn't the only thing the 'Sajna Ve' singer has gone viral for. Many of her music covers, including a video with actor Adarsh Gourav, have made waves on social media. The said video, wherein the two are singing Mehdi Haasan's 'Mujhe Tum Nazar Se', has so far received 798,858 views.

"The fact that it's become viral in two different years in a row is a surprise to both of us. In the first year that we uploaded the video, it went viral and after a few months, we thought it has run its course. And then randomly in 2023, it went viral again. I think people have really enjoyed the revival of a song that's loved by so many but also an entire generation didn't know about the song. I never knew the song before Adarsh told me let's do it. So, I am really grateful it exposed so many people to such a beautiful song including me," Mishrashared.

The 'Aa Mil' singer, who will be a part of Amazon Prime Video's Call Me Bae Season 2, also has Netflix's The Royals in the pipeline. A completely different world from Call Me Bae, Mishra is thrilled to be a part of the project starring Zeenat Aman, Sakshi Tanwar, Bhumi Pednekar, Ishaan Khatter and Nora Fatehi among others.

"It was an incredible experience - it was tough and it was a demanding set because you are working with legendary actors," she said, adding that the show is a little bit more dramatic. When asked if she felt intimidated with industry stalwarts, Mishra revealed that there were 600 people on the set on the first day. "We were shooting a massive scene, I remember reaching the set and feeling like - 'is this real'. It was the scale we were shooting at that I could never anticipate. It's full of grandeur and it showcases the best of the old world in India, it was a beautiful experience." The project will release in 2025.

As for the second season of Call Me Bae, Mishra hopes fans get to see Harleen's backstory. "I have no idea what's going to happen. I can only hope that we see more of Harleen and a little bit of her backstory - things like what all happened to make her the woman that she is. Maybe she doesn't have a love interest at all in Season 2 because she really had a terrible guy in the first one, or maybe, she has an excellent boy who treats her right. I am excited to see where Harleen ends up and where the rest of the cast ends up as well because we've got all the girls together at the end of the first season," she concluded.