Entertainment is the family business, and this year, it is booming. Last month, Hot Press spoke to Ishana Shyamalan, the 24-year-old daughter of acclaimed horror director M. Night Shyamalan. Ishana had just made her feature directorial debut with The Watched, the Irish-set folk horror starring Dakota Fanning. This month, her father’s new horror Trap hits cinemas, starring Josh Hartnett as a devoted Dad taking his tween daughter to a concert of pop sensation Lady Raven. But as police surround the venue, it’s clear the mild-mannered father has some dark secrets. M. Night Shyamalan isn’t the only family member bringing magic to Trap – his eldest daughter, singer Saleka, plays Lady Raven, putting on a full concert experience within the film.

Now 27, Saleka grew up in Philadelphia, which was where her grandparents first emigrated to from India. As a child, she visited her father’s sets, learning how to marry creativity with discipline to make something special. This was also the approach he encouraged when Saleka started playing classical piano as a child – but her influences were more diverse than the great composers.

“I was definitely influenced by the music my parents were listening to,” she reflects. “It was an interesting mix, because it’s an Indian household, so my mom loved Bollywood music. Her parents brought a lot of Indian folk music into her life, and she would sing those kind of Indian lullabies to us. My Dad was super into R&B and hip hop, so in the car on the way to school, we’d be listening to Lauryn Hill, Jay Z, Kanye, Beyoncé and all these very influential American artists. That made me fall in love with R&B and hip-hop production. We also listened to a lot of jazz, Frank Sinatra, Etta, James and Jeff Buckley. So a great mix of genres.”

All these influences helped Saleka develop her own unique sound, which is sensual R&B. But as she’s gotten older, she has started to bring in more Indian influences, which has been an important personal journey of exploration and identity.
“Coming from an immigrant family, it’s a complicated relationship to the place you’re living in, the culture that you come from, and both are very essential to the person that I am,” says Saleka. “And it shifts over time. I think being Indian is a huge part of my personality, and also the art, in ways that are hard to explain. Because it’s so integrated into the production, like the drums I gravitate towards. Is it because I’ve been exposed to Indian music my whole life? It’s definitely deep inside me, and being proud of that part of me is a journey I’ve had to go on. I want to express that as much as I can.”

While the discourse about nepo babies can rage on, it’s still momentous to have a summer where one Indian-American woman is releasing a feature, and another is releasing new music while appearing in a film. Saleka feels the importance of that representation for young Indian women who want to be in the arts, and is grateful to be experiencing this summer with her sister, who has previously directed videos for Saleka’s singles, including ‘Clarity’ and ‘Graffiti’.

“Having her beside me as we’ve gone through our journeys has been a great source of support,” says Saleka. “We’re both young Indian women entering different industries, and we have a lot of the same fears and value systems. So getting to watch each other go through it has been very helpful. And I’m so inspired by her – she’s incredible and so brave. It makes me want to keep going and put our voices out there.”

In playing Lady Raven, Saleka had to write songs specifically for the film, and notes that having a musical alter ego was a wonderful challenge.

“Musically, the album is different to the two albums I have out, because of the way the script is written,” says Saleka. “It has to feel big and like a stadium concert. But at the same time, it was the lane I was already exploring, so it felt very natural to go there and embrace the pop structures. But also to bring in my tastes – dark production, eerie sounds, and Indian and Latin textures. I feel like the music feels like me, and I feel super proud of it.

“But getting to write through the character also freed me up in a way, because I wasn’t feeling like, ‘Oh, this has to define who I am completely.’ It was getting to create through this imagined character, who could be as amazing as I wanted her to be. Some of the lyrics are super confident and sassy, and she’s a bit more confident, assertive and bold than I am. But they’re all aspects I want to have. So it’s fun to play a character you want to embody, and that inspires you to be a better person.”

• Trap is in cinemas now.