Raj Shekhar: People are returning to meaningful lyrics

Raj Shekhar: People are returning to meaningful lyrics

2023 was a great year for lyricist Raj Shekhar. “Mera humesha se sapna tha ki main Shah Rukh Khan aur Ranbir Kapoor ki film ka hissa banun, uss mein se ek sapna tohpura ho gaya hai,” says Raj, who penned three songs for Animal. “I collaborated with new people, and the year (2023) started with Akhil Sathyan’s Pachuvum Athbuthavilakkum, it had two of my songs, and the year ended with Animal, which had three songs (Marham, Pehle Bhi Main and Papa Meri Jaan). I also got to know recently that more than 20-25 million people listen to my songs and this in itself is a validation and it also brings creative responsibility to do better work,” says Raj.

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From Aise Kyun (from Mismatched) to Pehle Bhi Main, many songs by the lyricist topped music charts. Talking about the process of writing these songs, Raj says,

“For Animal, Sandeep Reddy sir was very clear about what he wanted and the emotions he wanted in these songs. He briefed me and I wrote the songs based on that brief and exactly pehla hi draft hai Marham ka aur Pehle Bhi Main ka jo ki aap sun rahe hain. I explored a lot while writing Papa Meri Jaan because the father-son relationship is complex, so I had written seven-eight more stanzas, but we went ahead with four. Aise Kyun from Mismatched had a very fluid brief, it wasn’t specific. The series was still being made, the script was still being worked on, so they gave a basic brief of the situation. I thought I could explore here, so I did and used words like zaafraan and gulmohar.”

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Raj, who has been in the industry for more than a decade now, says that people are now coming back to meaningful lyrics. “Tanu Weds Manu was my first film, and since then I have a been a part of projects like Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Veere Di Wedding, Uri, Tumbbad, and Mismatched. I have noticed that people are coming back to lyrics now. The songs that last long, the lyrics are an important part of their appeal. Good lyrics don’t mean difficult words – they should be relatable. My audience is primarily 17-25-year-olds and it’s not that if the lyrics are poetic the youth won’t listen to it. I think they are accepting towards new things,” says Raj.

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