I write songs for myself, not for commerce: Prasoon Joshi

MACAU - Bollywood’s acclaimed film lyricist Prasoon Joshi, whose heart-warming work in “Taare Zameen Par” won many awards, said he writes songs only for himself and not to generate business.

“My song-writing is something I do only for myself. It is just a personal thing and not for commerce. There are other things I do for commerce like advertising, consultancies but songs I do for myself. If I feel excited about a project, I do it,” Joshi told IANS at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) extravaganza here.

The advertising professional-cum-lyricist is here to promote Reliance BIG Pictures’ “Do Knot Disturb”. He recently joined Reliance BIG as its creative consultant.

“Reliance and I are doing some stuff together. There are many films that they were doing before and I have recently come onboard. About the future, I can say there are a lot of projects we are working on including Hollywood stuff, but they are just in the incubating stage and nothing is ready for release as of now,” he explained.

Apart from adding this new feather in his cap, Joshi is also working on his next project - “London Dreams” - being directed by Vipul Shah. It stars Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan and Asin Thottumkal and is inspired by the life of prolific musician Mozart.

“Since the film is inspired by the life of Mozart, it is quite a musical. I have worked with Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy on it and it was fun because it’s an out an out music film,” he said.

“We have used very contemporary but Indian music. Music has been intertwined in the script of the movie and it’s a first-of-its kind here (in India). It has got influences from the life of Mozart,” added Joshi.

Joshi said there are soft as well as dance numbers in the film. “Like in ‘Delhi-6′, we gave Sufi as well as dance numbers, this one also has a lot of variety,” he said.

Joshi said he chooses “only what appeals to my heart”, and what struck him about “London Dreams” was the combination of “fun and seriousness” weaved into the script.

Joshi, who has penned song lyrics in films like “Hum Tum”, “Rang De Basanti” and “Ghajini” as well, said lyrics have attained their due importance nowadays.

“Ten years back I wouldn’t have agreed but I think now it has. I think it has a lot to do with the Internet. People are now able to refer to lyrics again through the net and it is gaining more importance. Lyrics make the crux of a song - if we remove those, we will be left with just beats,” he said.