Interview with Meghna and Movina Nagarajan
Meet Meghna and Movina. Two sisters and two sides of the same coin. The #MeMoSisters have their eyes set on the entertainment industry — Meghna the Maverick as the actor/filmmaker & Movina the Mastermind as the artist/performer.
What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment?
Meghna: Honestly, the Call Me Baddie music video is by far my favorite creation. Not to diminish any of my other accomplishments but, nothing else I have done in my life so far has given me the sense of accomplishment that completing and releasing Call Me Baddie’s music video has given me.
Movina: Me too. Call Me Baddie. We have done so many things we are proud of. I did really well in school and college and landed a great job after graduating. We have a very tight knit and loving family and have really great friends and people around us. But Call Me Baddie for me is the start of something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. All the skills and talents I honed over the years has led up to Call Me Baddie and my debut album. I am excited to be here and can’t wait for what’s ahead.
How did you come to these careers?
Meghna: I took the long road to get here.I grew up in a middle class Asian family that worshipped the twin goddesses, Security and Stability. But the thing is, I am the disciple of the goddess of Chaos. As you can imagine, my childhood was a constant internal and external struggle of who I “should” be verses who I actually am. This was further complicated by the fact that I excelled in math and science. So when the time came for me to “choose my line”, I went with the tried and tested family path of engineering. During my sophomore year at Georgia Tech however, I won the Miss India USA title and became the 2nd runner up at the Miss India Worldwide pageant. The movie offers came pouring in and my mother promptly shut that whole thing down. So I went about my merry way and got my engineering degree from Tech and started working. Everything was fantastic. I had adopted Security and Stability as my new goddesses and couldn’t be happier! LYING! I was miserable and the poster child for unhappiness. So to make a long story even longer, I quit my job and decided to pursue film as a career. That said, do you have a minute to talk about my lord and savior, Chaos?
Movina: Strangely I always knew I wanted to be a singer. There was a brief time when I thought being an astronaut would be cool but really I knew I wanted to sing as early as 10 years old. Of course I didn’t have a complete understanding of what that meant. I have learned so much about the industry and business since then. There is so much more to being a singer than just singing. It is a career path that requires a lot of resilience and self-sufficiency. But when you boil it down it all stems from a true passion. I’ve never been so passionate about anything else in my life. Music has always been a constant. I emote and express myself through it. You really can’t ignore something like that. I had no choice but to follow it wholeheartedly.
How do you stay in touch with your heritage?
Meghna: Through song and dance. I am also very involved with the Indian community in Atlanta.
Movina: Our parents have always been proponents of investing in our communities. Ever since we were young they were signing us up to participate in community events. We would always be signing or dancing at shows throughout the year. I didn’t give it much thought at the time because it was fun for us, but it definitely instilled a need to engage with the community in us. As adults we still regularly participate in these events. Now however we are more likely to organize the events and often are approached to participate by the organizations themselves, but we do make it a point to invest and put time back into our community. The Indian American community in Atlanta gave us many opportunities to express ourselves through art. They have always supported and encouraged Meghna and I in our endeavors. I want the younger generation to feel that warmth and support as well. It is extremely rewarding to be an active member of your community and now it is up to people like us to instill that in others.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Meghna: Songs and bad movies or shows
Movina: I draw inspiration from movies, songs, and people around me. My head is usually in a zone when I’m getting ready to write a song. Whether it’s a feeling or certain lyrics, it stays with me for a while and I start to pull inspiration from what I see and hear around me. It could be a movie or another song or something a friend said. I jot down lyrics as they come to my head so when I actually sit down to write the song everything comes very quickly. I’ve already been thinking and mulling over the feel so putting a structure to it and making a coherent song is the easy part.
Who are some Asian female artists you like?
Meghna: Sunmi, Zoya Akthar, Alia Bhatt, Shubhika – the designer of Papa Don’t Preach
Movina: Rupi Kaur, Shubika the fashion designer, Shreya Goshal, Mindy Kaling, Priyanka ChopraThey are all doing great things for Asian women around the world through their art.
What is next for you two?
Movina: I will be putting out my debut EP/album in the next year. So a lot more music, performances, and music videos. I hope Call Me Baddie is the start of a long career. I have a lot to say and so many more things to learn and explore in life. I’m hoping I can do all that and so much more through music. I aspire to do things that don’t directly involve music or me being a singer, but I hope following this path will lead to those doors and help me complete those dreams as well.
Meghna: There are so many projects in the pipeline right now, but the two biggest ones are music videos for Movina’s EP and getting my show’s pilot greenlit.
What is your go-to coffee order?
Meghna: Salted caramel mocha
Movina: When I got my first job after I graduated from college I bought myself an espresso machine as a congratulatory present. I still use it every day. It’s probably one of best purchases I’ve made to date. A coffee from my Nespresso machine with a teaspoon of condensed milk does the deed and is usually how I start my day. And no this is not a sponsored ad. But Nespresso, if you want to make it one - call me.
What, in your opinion, is the biggest problem facing Asian women today?
Movina: The biggest problem for Asian women in my opinion is a lack of basic human rights. There is a lot of work to be done for women’s rights all over the world, but I see a bigger disparity in Asia. Religion and archaic social norms have set women back severely and it is time we fight to make sure every girl is educated, every woman is free to act and dress how she sees fit, every woman is free to make her own decisions regarding her body, and every woman is free to follow her dreams. We all are here in this life for a short time. I think we all need to have the freedom to decide how we want to live it.
Meghna: The biggest problem facing Asian women today, and always, is the lack of financial independence and freedom. All of the big evils that Asian women are subjugated to like violence, limited or no access to education, lack of autonomy over their own bodies, child marriages, limited or no access to basic healthcare (to name a few), are a result of this.To be fair these issues precipitate each other and it’s definitely a chicken and egg situation. But they are all part of the overarching conspiracy to keep women underfoot. But we WILL rise! And we will bring each other up as we rise! The future is female! I truly believe that this generation of women, especially the teenagers who will step into adulthood in the next few years, will change the world for the better. I for one absolutely cannot wait. I will do my part in breaking down as much of the wall and shattering as much of the ceiling as I can so that the ones who follow can focus on the real problems.
