Coming from a musical family background, Riya’s interest in playing the guitar rose from her father’s art, and since then she has never looked back.

Riya Duggal is a singer and songwriter who hails from Mumbai. She is also a co-artist of the pop band ‘Simetri’ with her sister, Simran. She is a third-generation musician in her family. Her paternal grandfather was a lyricist, her mother is a singer, and her father is a composer and singer. Apart from singing and songwriting, she likes to travel, play sports, produce music, and write and read poems.

Riya is trained in Indian classical as well as western choir-style music. She has been singing for a very long time and credits her interest in guitar to her father, who also plays the instrument. According to Riya, her experiences have shaped the way she sounds, and thus her songs are a blend of Indian and western influences.

She was born and brought up in Mumbai and belongs to a musical family. As a kid, she recalls her piano and Indian classical music classes as being boring. “I used to sleep during piano classes.” But her interest in playing the guitar rose from her father’s art. She keenly observed him play it and got inspired to learn it. He taught her some chords, and she “felt at home.” Riya says that the guitar inspired her to write songs. Being from a complete musical background, she loved the family jamming sessions during get-togethers and parties at her house.

Riya’s big break into Bollywood playback singing came this year with the film ‘14 Phere, starring Vikrant Massey and Kriti Kharbanda, in which she sang the song “Hum Dono yuh mile” along with Rajiv Bhalla. On this, she cheerfully exclaims, “It’s an exciting time in life.” Moreover, her pop band ‘Simetri’ won the “Nexa Music Lab Award” and got the chance to collaborate on a song with the music legend A.R. Rahman. Furthermore, through Simetri, they collaborated on their song “Different Kinds of Love” with Clinton Cerejo and Priyanka Gomes as the music composers. Hence, her achievements have been fulfilling and quite satisfying until now.

Riya shares that her goal in life is to release her music through Simetri. And with her sister Simran, she wants to travel the world, see places, experience different cultures, have a good fanbase, and live the life of her dreams. Moreover, she wants to sing more Bollywood songs and build a career in playback singing as well.

Riya is a grateful human, and during this deadly pandemic, she was only feeling thankful for having food and shelter since she understood that many artists had to leave Mumbai and go back to their hometowns. She also experienced a halt in the live shows she does, and it was a setback as it’s the “biggest source of income” for artists like her. She sings for commercials as well, and because they stopped filming, she got no work as such. During such times, she wrote songs, practiced music with her sister, used the time wisely, and worked on her skills.

Riya feels that she is a leader at work. She thinks that her personality is not leader-like because she is generally a calm person. If given a chance, she wants to time travel back to the 1980s because the music and fashion of that era attract her. She is an ambitious artist who advises aspiring singers and songwriters to focus on their art, keep practicing, and never give up in life.

Riya believes in the quotation: “People will throw stones at you; don’t throw them back; rather, collect them and make an empire.” Her personal experiences of social media hatred in the form of hate comments on her art, clothing, and style of singing have made her aware of the deeper meaning of this quote. She understands that the audience takes time to accept something new. Nonetheless, she motivates everyone to “be who you are and continue with your journey.”