Bollywood poet: “Everyone here knows that Russians like Indian films”

– Mr. Irshad Kamil, you were born in 1971, and Indian films that are considered classics in Russia were released either before your birth or in the 1980s, for example, Disco Dancer, Dance, Dance. Do you consider yourself a poet who grew up on these films?

– Almost every child in India grows up watching Hindi films. It is only thanks to the cinema that the first excitement of love is born in him, and he also joins fashion. It was the same with me when I was 10-12 years old – it was the very beginning of television. There was only one TV set in my village. That’s why we, children, watched movies together on Sundays. Previously, our TV showed mostly old classic films.

– What songs based on your poems do you consider your main achievement? What songs have become super popular? How often do you hear your songs being sung – at parties, weddings or just on the street?

– Some of my poems are actually raw material. You need to get to a specific situation in order to “hack” a song from the movie. For example, in my book there is a poem “Dua Karo” (“Pray, please”). Through him, I got into the mood of one of my very, very popular songs “Nadaan Parinde” (“Naive Bird”) from the movie “Rock Star”. Another poem “Aise Na Deho” (“Don’t look at me like that”) and “Tum Tak” (“For you”) was used in the film “Raanjhana” (“Lover”). Now, almost every day, I hear my songs everywhere, whether it be clubs, parties, weddings or the audio background of videos or stories on social networks.

– What do you need to do to write a song? How important is rhythm and rhyme in them?

– In our film industry, a melody is first created, and after the melody, the text is written. Melody sometimes allows rhyming, and sometimes does not. The main reason is that these songs are written for a specific situation in the film. In cinema, the situation is more important than the rhyme.

– How does your popularity affect your daily life? Do people come up to you asking for an autograph, do passersby ask you to take a picture with you? Does your appearance in public cause a stir?

– Writers are artists without faces. People know their work, but sometimes they don’t recognize them because they are not advertised as actors. Social media has given some writers a face. I hardly have time to leave the house when I am in public places, people recognize me and sometimes I lie that I look like Irshad Kamil, but I am not that guy. It goes without saying that everyone likes popularity, and so do I. It does not become a hindrance in my life today.

– Tell us about yourself, in which region you were born and in which city you live now. And a little more about childhood and youth: family, friends of young years, do you miss them, do you remember them in songs?

– First of all I am an Indian, and then a Punjabi Muslim. I was born and raised in Malerkotl, one of the villages (larger than a village but smaller than a city) in the Punjab province. Now I live in Mumbai, one of the largest and busiest cities in India, the capital of the film industry, but I keep in touch with some of my school friends, family and relatives. For them, I am not the songwriter Irshad Kamil, but the same guy who roamed the streets of Malerkotl.

– Do Indians know that Indian cinema was very popular in the USSR, and now in Russia? How can one explain the phenomenon of success of Indian cinema in our country? Maybe it’s a common mentality, the desire to be an independent country, a large population, family values?

– Yes, everyone here knows that Russians like our films. I think it’s because we experience the same emotions. We connect on an emotional level, not for any external reason.

– What songs have you written for contemporary popular actors? Which of them is also loved by Russian viewers, as they once loved Mithun Chakraborty and Raj Kapoor?

– During my last visit to Russia in November 2022, I said that in the last generation people know about Shah Rukh Khan. I have written lyrics for Shah Rukh, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and many more. In total, almost a hundred films.

– Folk songs of India and songs for films – is there a connection between them? Do you like folk songs?

– Folklore and traditions are an integral part of Indian music. I love folk songs. Sometimes we try to connect folk music with film music, this term is called fusion music.

– Is Bollywood of the 21st century influenced by Western cinema or is it an independent cultural phenomenon? And what does your “work day” look like? They show you the script, give you an “installation” – and you start creating?

– There are two waves of cinema in India, one of which is influenced by the West, and the other is rooted in the soil. When it comes to songwriting, whether it’s a western-influenced film or a film with roots, I read the script first before I write anything. I don’t have any particular routine or schedule; my heart makes plans for the day.

The author would like to thank Translator Sona Saini, Senior Lecturer at the Center for Russian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, for her help in arranging the interview.