Raj Shekhar remembers his early days within the music business being marred by the hit-chasing machinations of Bollywood, which left little room for him to indulge his love for Hindi literature. However maybe a very powerful factor the author and lyricist—who now has over 100 songs to his identify—learnt over the course of his journey from Tanu Weds Manu to the upcoming Aap Jaisa Koi is the significance of discovering the suitable collaborators.
“You kind an understanding with individuals,” he says, referencing his shut bond with Vishal Mishra, with whom he has labored on a number of hits since 2014. “Loads is alleged about belief between artists. Once I was youthful, I didn’t perceive what [that] meant. Now, I get that when somebody performs a tune on their piano, it’s so mild—the music room is so stunning as a result of there’s two individuals who belief one another. Me and the opposite particular person are so susceptible {that a} third particular person being there in that second would completely destroy it.” Nevertheless, he admits, it’s not all the time an outsider who breaks that intimacy. “You understand who that third particular person typically is? It’s our personal ideas. When that sneaks in, the magic of that place ends.”
It’s been a protracted street to gaining recognition and, extra importantly, a livelihood for Raj Shekhar. Whether or not in movie songs like “Pehle Bhi Major” from Animal or OTT tracks like “Ishq Hai” from Mismatched season 3, the lyricist admits he’s now writing from a spot of self-belief. “It’s not like I’ve reached some unbelievable peak, however I’m simply saying: I’m on this journey that’s good and don’t have an excessive amount of self-doubt now about being a lyricist,” he tells Rolling Stone India.
Within the final 12 months alone, songs like “Ishq Hai,” composed by Anurag Saikia and sung by Romy, Madhubanti Bagchi, Varun Jain and Amarabha Banerjee, and “Pehle Bhi Major” by Vishal Mishra have topped streaming charts. Within the course of, it has spotlighted lyricists as equal gamers within the mechanics of a music.
That wasn’t all the time the case in Bollywood.
It additionally wasn’t all the time the case that hit songs meant extra initiatives, as Raj Shekhar discovered after writing songs like “Sadi Gali” and “Yun Hello” from Tanu Weds Manu in 2011. Solely a handful of initiatives adopted within the years after, till 2018 when he wrote songs for Hichki, Veere Di Marriage ceremony and Tumbbad. “Greater than three years after a music, in case you don’t get work, you ask whether or not you’re on the suitable path or in case you ought to do one thing extra,” he admits. “When a movie releases, you get numerous publicity, numerous reward and then you definately’re not getting any work, so that you surprise, ‘What occurred?’”
Streaming has introduced extra visibility to lyricists, with their names equally credited and given artist profiles. To that finish, Raj Shekhar’s Spotify stats present over 12 million month-to-month listeners and over 253,000 followers. Whereas most artists are attaching their self-worth to streaming stats, the lyricist says, “As soon as the music is made, I not often hear it once more. So if I take pleasure in it on the stage that it’s being made (and never in any indulgent approach), then it displays within the numbers of hundreds of thousands of streams. It’s one thing that individuals connect their price to, nevertheless it ought to mirror the enjoyment.”
That tough patch within the early years of the Bihar and New Delhi-bred assistant director-turned-writer is prior to now now. “There are undoubtedly individuals who come to me due to my hits, and I’m completely satisfied about it,” he says with fun.
From then to now, Raj Shekhar says “nothing has modified” in his artistic course of. He’s nonetheless in search of that best time when he writes finest. He wonders out loud, laying out the mixtures, “Is it spring, winter, late night time, early morning, after espresso? An excessive amount of info, with out information, an excessive amount of management or simply writing freely?”
There’s undoubtedly a zone that he can get into, in order that’s not a delusion. “Once I’m writing, for a short time— might be quarter-hour or 1 hour—I’m going into this meditative house the place I don’t notice whether or not I’ve had my tea, when’s the deadline, the place’s the AC distant… I by no means know. As soon as I get into this meditative house, I don’t really feel like leaving. It typically comes for a short whereas and if you’re snapped out of it, you assume, ‘Arrey yaar, the place was I?’”
It may be elusive, although. However Raj Shekhar insists he’s not attempting to mystify the artistic writing course of. “However that is what occurs with me,” he provides. His songs are for everybody, from school-goers to financial institution workers to a “farmer working within the fields” or the “lady who’s about to suggest for the primary time.” The lyricist says, “All of them are my associates. I wish to do one thing for his or her lives with my phrases. Not each poem will turn into a music, but when I give them a phrase to speak what they’re feeling, that’s my job.”
Collaboration and belief between composers, singers and the movie’s administrators is vital, as he notes how songs like “Ishq Hai” and “Pehle Bhi Major” had been lengthier than the standard 2-3 minute songs which might be the norm nowadays, however nonetheless turned hits. “With Anurag Saikia, I’ve had a relationship that’s so understanding that we are able to all the time inform one another, ‘This isn’t working, let’s strive one thing else.’ I’d typically say this in entrance of producers, ‘I’m not having enjoyable, that is feeling tough.’ This house is created mutually.”
For the upcoming Netflix movie Aap Jaisa Koi, Raj Shekhar has three songs, working with South Indian composer Justin Prabhakaran for the third time, after Meenakshi Sundareshwar a few years in the past. “Mila Tujhe” is sung by Vishal Mishra and Prateeksha Srivastava, “Jadu Wali Chimki” contains vocals by Devenderpal Singh and Vidhya Gopal and “Saare Jag Mein” options the voices of Abhay Jodhpurkar and Aanandi Joshi. He says in regards to the challenge’s music, “It’s past the binaries of a tragic love music, so it deviates from that, and that was enjoyable.”
From deliberation over what is easy and what feels simplistic (“I observe and relish this battle generally,” he says) and writing up 70 drafts earlier than what he calls “the primary draft” even reaches individuals, Raj Shekhar likens the writing course of to battling his personal ego. However he’s all the time bought a bigger image in thoughts. “At any time when I’m going astray, I’m going again to this line and it brings me again to my goal—the operate of artwork is to brush off the mud that gathers on our souls with time,” he says.