‘I am an impatient man’
Amarjot Kaur
With layered nonchalance, lyricist-author Swanand Kirkire shares some potent anecdotes that have left an impression on both his writings and personality. His recently released book, titled Aap Kamai, has been doing well ever since its launch at Jaipur Literary Festival, but Kirkire isn’t rejoicing in complacency. He has pulled up his socks, and with hammer and tongs, he is steadily pitching his story with a few directors.
With films on his mind, he is also writing the lyrics for songs to be featured in a film starring Kajol and Ajay Devgn, called Illa, Rana Daggubati-starrer Haathi Mere Saathi and Raju Hirani’s next. For books, he has no patience, at this time. “It takes too long to write a book and I am an impatient man,” he singles out a flaw with an honest reply. In Chandigarh to perform at Soul Stage, an event by Kommune, in Elante, Swanand brings out the ‘Jack of many trades’ in him.
Music, lyrics & drama
Born and brought up in Indore, to a family of musicians, Swanand had a congenital bond with music even though theatre caught his fancy. At the age of 15, Swanand had already performed with several local theatre groups and was convinced that he’d like to study theatre in NSD, Delhi, soon after he heard of the institute’s good reputation. “I got through NSD in 1993 after a couple of attempts and remained there till 1996. There, I did a ‘design and direction’ diploma and was spotted by director Manju Singh, who had come to watch a play we were enacting on Bhagat Singh. She was to make a television serial on the revolutionary and I left for Mumbai to work with her in 1998,” he says.
In Mumbai, Swanand met director Sudhir Mishra with whom he directed Calcutta Mail (as an assistant director), wrote dialogues for Chameli, and penned the lyrics for Baawra Mann in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. “Subsequently, I started getting offers for writing lyrics for movies like Parineeta and all. Then there was no looking back,” he says. While Swanand believes that digital and online exposure has made a cutting edge improvement in bringing up young talent, he remembers the days of struggle the old times brought along. “Even to get access to camera, we had to go to Mumbai. There was no platform to be spotted. I like how internet has liberated people; the whole idea of this communication system, in economic and social aspect, is to grow by sharing. That’s called dissemination of power and that is quite democratic when it comes to opportunities available,” he says.
My idea, my right
A committee member of Film Writers’ Association (FWA), Swanand is elated about the amendment that Javed Akhtar brought to the ‘copyright law’. “We have all had to go through our ideas and scripts being stolen, I have been through it too; but we don’t want the young people to go through it. Writers can get their script registered with FWA for a nominal amount and we guard their ideas and fight for their intellectual rights,” he says. “Though, theoretically, the law is in place, it may take some more time for it to be practiced,” he adds.
Song and story
“With overbearing exposure to visual mediums, spoken word has lost its sheen and so has the tradition of storytelling. I feel Kommune helps one reconnect with this tradition and lets people imagine things as the story is told to them,” shares Swanand while talking about his connection with an artist-network company Kommune. He signs off with one of his most stirring songs: O Ri Churaiya, a song that introduced the ‘female foeticide’ episode in the 2012 edition of Satyamev Jayate and has since been associated with several ‘woman rights’ activist movements. “I saw the documentary before writing this song and was shaken, stirred, and jolted. Of all the songs I have written, I pray this one is forgotten and never sung again,” he signs off.
amarjot@tribunemail.com
