Let us tell you about a Bombay-born Indian singer—whose music was imitated by Donna Summers, sampled by Notorious BIG. She didn’t just wear Manolos—she inspired him… and Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. FYI: she is going back on tour after 40 long years.
Once upon a time…
A little girl called Asha Puthli lived in Matunga’s RP Masani Road—then known as Hollywood Lane. Perhaps because it was also home to legends like Prithviraj Kapoor. Her parents were affluent and progressive—at least for that time. After all, her father marched alongside Gandhi in the Salt March:
They encouraged her to learn music—first Indian classical, then operatic singing—but hoped she would opt for a career in law or the IAS, following in the footsteps of family, like her aunts Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (a prominent social reformer) and Sulochana Sheti (who founded the Little Angels’ School in Mumbai’s Sion area in the 1950s). After school, they sent her to study home economics at Baroda’s MS University, “so they could prepare me to be a good wife and a good career woman.”
Puthli, however, spent most of her Baroda years exploring India with her boyfriend—and now legendary artist—Vivan Sundaram.
Early adventures: Sadly for her parents, their daughter fell in far greater love with jazz thanks to Voice of America programs on the radio. She wanted to fly West to find her fortunes—but lacked a passport. Puthli signed up to become a British Airways air hostess—and later landed a prestigious dance scholarship—arriving with impeccable timing. It was 1969 and the beginning of Woodstock. Asha took New York by storm.
The Studio 54 days: Puthli ran into the reigning god of the legendary nightclub at a bookstore. The encounter went something like this:
She ran into Andy Warhol at a bookstore, where the artist was going around from person to person, asking them questions and recording their responses on a tape recorder. “He put the microphone too close to my mouth, and I said, ‘I’m not that kind of girl’,” she says. “I think I used stronger words than I’m telling you, because you’re a publication. And he laughed. He always had a good sense of humour. And he always liked anyone who talked about sex, on a personal level.”
They soon became excellent friends—and Puthli became a fixture at Studio 54. She was courted by the top designers including Manolo Blahnik and Halston—and “Salvador Dalí chased after her down the street, spellbound by the sight of her in a homemade pillowcase skirt.” This is Puthli with Warhol at the disco:
And here she is rocking her Manolos:
Always the inspiration, never the superstar
What’s most notable about Puthli’s career is not just how close she came to making it big. It’s how much she was imitated, sampled—or presaged trends that were to come—often with far greater success by others.
The OG Donna Summers? Puthli’s breathy, sexy voice—accompanied by “sensuous, spacey jazz-disco fusions”—were her signature sound. For example, her “purring, giggling, throaty cover” of 'I Dig Love' by George Harrison—which was included on the list titled "These Ten Songs Will Make You Dry Hump Your Stereo System."
The sound is widely acknowledged as inspiration for the biggest hits of the 1970s: Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby’:
By the time Love to Love You Baby was released worldwide in November 1975, Puthli says that she received calls from people who’d heard the song and saw clear links with Puthli’s style. She claims she found out that Summer’s producers would “play my stuff and tell her to sound a little bit like that”, specifically her 1973 debut album, produced by Elton John collaborator Del Newman.
In fact, the similarities extended to the dress Summers wore while performing her hit on Dutch TV:
Robbed by rap legends: Puthli’s music never hit the mainstream—but circulated widely in the underground scene. That also made it very easy to sample—often without giving credit. Like her most famous track ‘Space Walk’—which Diddy ripped off for a Notorious B.I.G track called ’The World is Filled…’ The song was also later sampled by 50 Cent and Jay-Z—and finally beamed into space to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic moon landing. Puthli told Buzz Aldrin: “The whole human race doesn’t seem to appreciate this, but somebody out there is going to.”
Wait, there’s more: Puthli once told Warhol her idea for a music album cover: “A man’s zipper, which opens, and the album should come out with a pink inner sleeve. You know, like a prophylactic.” This is what he designed for the Rolling Stones the same year:
Puthli also presaged the style of the 80s—flaunting the cone-cupped bra long before Madonna trotted out that famous Jean Paul Gaultier corset. Here she is in a Thierry-Mugler catsuit on Italian TV:
Not your typical Indian gal…
Puthli was punished for not falling into neat exotic categories reserved for Indians in America. Although she won a prestigious jazz vocals award in 1972—alongside Ella Fitzgerald—a famous jazz musician warned her: “They want sitars and temple bells, so it’s easy for them to accept you, otherwise it’s going to be difficult.”
The West’s idea of what Indians should sound like was defined by the Beatles—and their adoration of Ravi Shankar. Looking back, co-founder of LA label Naya Beat Records, Raghav Mani says:
I don’t think Indians really knew what to make of her. It was unheard of for any South Asian woman to do what she did. At the time, through the lens of the Beatles and Ravi Shankar, it looked like Indian musicians were all sitting on top of a rock meditating and playing sitar. It’s hard to break through that mold even today, and she did that 50 years ago.
Quote to note: Her recording studio in the US bluntly laid it out for her:
“CBS did a focus group studying whether I would sell in America,” she recalled, acidly. “They said, ‘You’re not going to sell to the whites, you’re not going to sell to Black people.’ They said the Indians living in America liked Indian film music. “I don’t feel like a stranger in any country,” Puthli added. “But the industry made me feel like an outsider. It was a kick in the gut.”
The Puthli renaissance
Puthli’s contributions finally received the recognition she deserved—after she retired from the scene. First came her inclusion in the Grammy Museum—where she is the only Indian artist to be honoured other than Ravi Shankar (oh, the irony!) But Puthli’s comeback has been mostly fueled by a younger generation of immigrant Indians—musicians who see themselves in her effortless mix of East and West.
An NRI rediscovery: Raveena Aurora—who made waves as the first Indian-origin singer at Coachella—dedicated her 2022 album ‘Asha’s Awakening’ to Puthli—acknowledging her musical debt unlike many others. The same year the Brighton-based indie label Mr. Bongo reissued her long out-of-print 1973 self-titled album. And in 2023, Naya Beat put out ‘Disco Mystic’—a six-track EP featuring dance-floor-ready remixes of Puthli’s songs.
True story: In 2021, Naya Beat first put out a remix of the Puthli track “Chipko Chipko” on their debut compilation. But they were a little confused about what the song was about: “we thought it was just kind of a Michael Jackson cover, but it’s about the Indian environmental movement.”
The bottomline: We leave you with this fitting remix of ‘I Wanna Dance’ by Assam-born Jitwam—who has been flagged by The Guardian as ‘One to Watch’. We also like the other songs on the Naya Beat compilation—which you can check over at Spotify.
Reading list
The Guardian and LA Times (paywalled) have very good and detailed pieces on Puthli and her astonishing career. GQ India’s profile has the most on her Indian background—and has the most colour. For the connection between Puthli and Raveena, read this Vogue India profile—with lots of glam shots of Puthli looking as fab as ever. Huffington Post reports on her inclusion at the Grammy Museum. Puthli’s own Insta handle has loads of fun vids and photos. This New York Times review from Robert Palmer is a reminder of how close Puthli came to mainstream stardom. Scroll has a selection of five Puthli songs to get you started on her discography.
