He’s right now in the news for penning success after success — every one’s singing along with “Tinga tinga nanga panga dost” from PK , and Amitabh Bachchan’s music video, sitting on the potty singing his “Piddly” song in the to-be-released Shamitabh is all the rage.
As always, the lyricist who penned both songs is the quiet guy, not always in the picture. But Swanand Kirkire lives many lives in Bollywood and he’s very much in the picture in another way. The versatile lyricist, playback singer, writer, assistant director, dialogue writer, music director and actor — all rolled into one — was in Bengaluru recently to promote Crazy Cukkad Family . A comic drama from Prakash Jha Productions, directed by debutant Ritesh Menon, the film, which stars Swanand among its ensemble cast, releases on January 16. He was last in the city, on stage, for Manav Kaul’s play Colour Blind.
“It’s good fun doing so many things. One refreshes the other,” smiles the smooth multi-tasker. “There’s really no burden on you to do only one thing. I have no problem with creativity, and so far, I feel I’ve not lost out on anything.” A National School of Drama graduate, he made a mark for himself infusing a refreshing sense of poetry in Hindi film songs with his lyrics for films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Parineeta, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Peepli Live, Singham, 3 Idiots, Kai Po Che, Barfi, English Vinglish and many more.
He concedes that the role of music in our films is rather important. “It’s the first representative of the film, because the music is always released first. It creates the right sur , so to speak,” he says. “People tend to like the music and want to see the story behind it.” In PK , the music was an integral part of the storytelling. “It was not to sell the film, but to tell the film. Then, it makes the songs memorable.”
Swanand comes from a family steeped in classical music; his parents were both disciples of Kumar Gandharv. While he started off writing very soulful poetic lines, the tone seems to have changed over the last decade. “Your writing totally depends on the film you’re writing for. You can’t blame me for not being poetic,” he says in his defence. Writing lyrics is just one part of his personality, says Swanand, and that he ventured into acting because he loves the art of cinema.
His more than decade-long association with music director Shantanu Moitra has worked wonders for the duo, and now they are busy working on a private album together. “We bring together our strengths — words and melody — in this album,” he says.
Swanand is also finishing a script for a film he wants to direct, and hopes to start shooing by December; it’s a musical comedy. “I’m more interested in smaller towns of India which we never explore enough in Hindi cinema; people tend to tell stories of Delhi and Mumbai. My story is full of small-town nuances and stories of aspiration.”
