Piyush Mishra in Gulaal

Singer-actor-lyricist-dialogue writer-novelist Piyush Mishra has turned music director with Anurag Kashyap’s Gulaal

Gulaal has been a stuck for a while. Was the waiting period difficult considering it was your first film as a music director?

You cannot call it a stuck film because we finished work on it just last year. This is the best time for Gulaal to release because Anurag has got the recognition due to him with Dev D and people who came for Dev D will come and see Gulaal too.

Dev D’s music played an important part in the story-telling of the film. What about Gulaal’s music?

Gulaal has mast songs. Every song in the film is like a screenplay in itself. There are just two lip-sync songs; the rest are in the background. I have sung two songs and the others have been sung by Swanand Kirkire, Rekha Bhardwaj, Shilpa Rao and the singer from the band Indian Ocean (Rahul Ram).

In Dev D, when a song was playing in the background people missed it as they are too caught up in the scene. What do you think?

The song should be so good that wherever you hear it — whether in a theatre of on a CD — you should like it. Moreover, each song should be distinct from the other so that every song makes an impact.

Two songs in Gulaal are around seven-and-a-half minutes long! With the attention span of people shrinking, do you think this is a good idea?

If a seven-and-a-half minute scene can be gripping, so can a seven-minute-long song. The song is like a scene in itself. The visuals of the song in the film are so good that they carry the song very well.

Is Anurag a hands-on director who involves himself with the music sessions?

He trusted me with the music of this film but he knows what he wants. Even though he does not know much about music and cannot tell you the intricacies, on the whole, he tells you if he likes or does not like a song. Then it is up to you to find out what is wrong.

Earlier actors like Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna were involved in the music sessions of the film. Do actors come for the recordings today?

No one did in Gulaal. It is very individualistic but I would be glad if they did so. An actor today only wants to act and leave. Actors these days are not involved unless they are also producing the film. I’m sure Shah Rukh Khan does so.

You write lyrics, compose music and also sing. What gives you creative satisfaction?

I have always tried to find the answer to this but I’m still confused; so now I have stopped thinking. I have left everything to God Almighty without asking any questions; and since then good things are happening for me. I do not want to know too much about myself. I want to learn new things.

Okay, but which department of filmmaking is the most paying?

The pay depends on the number of hits you have had. In our industry, what people look at is how many hits you have had. If you have composed good songs but the film flops, you are called the music director of a flop film. I have written the dialogues for Ghajini and it has become a blockbuster. I might not have done a good job but I will be known as the dialogue writer of Ghajini and I will have a stronghold in the industry. Anurag’s film Black Friday might have been a good film but he will be called a hit director only after Dev D.