Aiyaari lyricist Muntashir pitches for pvt music
Amethi lad and lyricist-writer Manoj Muntashir stresses on the need to expand private music in India.
lucknow Updated: Feb 17, 2018 16:06 IST
Hindustan Times, Lucknow
Amethi lad and lyricist-writer Manoj Muntashir stresses on the need to expand private music in our country. “Private music is very important as it gives a bigger platform than films to musicians (singers, lyricists and composers). Big music companies are now supporting private music,” he says. Muntashir was recently in Lucknow with the team of Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaari in which he has penned songs.
- Manoj says that he will soon open a music academy in Lucknow. “I will do everything to keep UP’s flag high in the film industry. We are planning our music academy by 2018-19. I plan to start it from Lucknow and then expand. We are preparing a blueprint for the same as it’s is a very big project. Our government is also supporting films. Our academy will have all the big stars from our music industry as visiting faculty. Since it is a big project, we don’t want to come unprepared,” he says.
- On his visit to Lucknow he says, “People’s love for me is very selfless here. I hardly give them anything except my work, but they love me because probably they feel that I represent them in Bollywood.”
He feels that like in the West, private music should expand here also. “Justin Beiber has never sung for Tom Cruise nor will Edde do playback for Angelina Jolie. They are big stars independently. But in India, we are obsessed with films. This should change and I want to be a part of this change in whatever way I can. We are in for some great private music ahead.”
This year, he bagged both film and non-film music awards for lyrics at a popular award ceremony. “It’s a great feeling to bag both the awards. In the films category, I won for ‘Main phir to tumko chahunga’ and Manmarzian by Neeti Mohan and Rochak Kohli for non-film music.
He has given some big hits singles which include ‘Zindagi aa raha hu main’ by Atif Aslam, ‘Aap se mausiiquii’ by Himesh Reshammiya, ‘Pyar maanga hai’ by Amaal Malik, ‘Aaj bhi ja kahi sa’ by Sonu Nigam and ‘Tumhe Dillagi’ by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
Last year, he came up with Aap Se Mausiiquii, an album by Himesh Reshammiya. “It was after ages that a full album with 10 songs and 10 videos came to the market. Whether it was successful or not is a different debate, but it did open a lot of doors. Singles have being doing very good for quite some time. Now, almost after a decade, albums are also making a comeback slowly,” he says.
He has some upcoming singles with Neha Kakkar and Akhil Sachdeva of ‘Ae Mere Humsafar’ fame. He is also working with Mithoon (composer of Aashiqui) on a private album.
His forthcoming films include Ajay Devgn starrer Raid, Hate Story 4, Sania’s biopic starring Shraddha Kapoor, Salman Khan’s production film Loveratri and Genius in which Anil Sharma is launching his son.
Recently, Raid’s first song ‘Tenu Ek Pal Chain Na Aave’, which is a recreation of a hit song, was released. “Earlier, I was a big virodhi of remake of songs. But, after the success of ‘Rashke Qamar’ I understood that if you recreate the entire song except the hook line (old punch line) then it will make all the difference. ‘Aashiq banaya aapne’ is also back in a new avatar.”
He says poetry has changed with time. “Being poetic is good, but today we need to keep poetry very straight. We can’t say lyrics or poetry was good in the olden times. Today, the audience has changed so we also need to change accordingly. We can learn from the past, but to cater to the age group of 13-33 years, we have to deliver what they like,” he says.
After writing dialogues for Baahubali and its sequel, he has also been approached by SS Rajamouli for this next.
