Swanand Kirkire

What was it like working with Ilaiyaraja in Paa?

The experience was wonderful. Previously I had only worked with people who are my age, people who are contemporary. But with Raja Sir, it was very different. He is a great composer and I got to learn many new things. Also, with him, you have to write to precomposed tunes. All the Paa tunes were already there. He was very particular about the phonetics of the songs, the musicality. He is such a simple person. He has done 1,900 films but after meeting him, you will never come to know that.

What are you more comfortable with, writing to a precomposed tune or writing the song first?

Whatever comes first. I can work both ways. Sometimes better things come out when you write first. There are constraints when the tune is precomposed. But in our film industry the tune often comes first. When Shantanu (Moitra) and I work together and because we work together so often, sometimes we ourselves don’t realise what came first — the words or the tune.

3 Idiots: “The words had to come straight from the heart”

You had to write two versions of the Mudhi mudhi song for Paa. Was it challenging to put across two different thoughts through the same tune?

It was a challenge because the tune is the same. Also I was using abstract words there... udhi udhi... mudhi mudhi.... And most of the times when you have a happy and a sad version of the same song, the tempo varies a lot. Like we did in Parineeta. But here, the tempo wasn’t varying and that made it difficult.

Was it daunting to write the song that Amitabh Bachchan sang?

We knew right from the start that Mr Bachchan would sing that song. And not just Mr Bachchan but Mr Bachchan as Auro. Balki’s brief was very simple — he tells his father to take care of his mother. That made it easier.

3 Idiots is in such a different zone compared to Paa...

It was a completely different process. Shantanu and myself were involved with it right from the time Raju (director Rajkumar Hirani) had this idea. What I tried to do with 3 Idiots is take out the ornamentation from the words. Because it is a student film, everything should come straight from the heart. Nobody is interested in unnecessary poetry. Everybody is interested in getting the point across. In Parineeta and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, I was wearing a Bengali sari. Here I am wearing a jeans and a T-shirt. So, the language didn’t matter... Hindi, English or Hinglish.

You mostly work with Shantanu Moitra. Is that by choice?

It’s not a conscious decision. People want us together. We don’t go out and say that we will only work as a team. The projects that came to us were such. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Raju Hirani, Pradeep Sarkar, Sudhir Mishra... all of them are comfortable with us together. Now, I am doing films which don’t have Shantanu. Like Sudhir Mishra’s next film with Irrfan and Chitrangda has lyrics by me and music by Nishad Khan, the Calcutta-based sitar player. Shantanu did Shyam Benegal’s Well Done Abba with someone else.

Why are you not singing more after the magical Bawra mann in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi...

I don’t know. I want to sing more. Not many people have given me a chance. Maybe because I am not a typical playback singer.