Raj Shekhar, Puneet Sharma, Abhiruchi Chand - Meet the new lyricists on the block

In Nasreen Munni Kabir’s book, In The Company of a Poet, veteran wordsmith Gulzar says, “I believe words should amaze or amuse. Only then will the listener want to understand the meaning of the song.” While none of the lyricists listed here are household names (not yet) at least, these songwriters have managed to make listeners sit up and take notice of their work, either by amazing them or amusing them. A regular listener might not know who Puneet Sharma is, but he/she has surely appreciated Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya from Sanju, or become wistful while listening to Theher Ja from October, penned by Abhiruchi Chand. We take a look at a few new writers, who have been entertaining and engaging the listeners in recent times...

RAJ SHEKHAR

SONGS: • Rangrezz Mere (Tanu Weds Manu) • Jugni (Tanu Weds Manu) • Ghani Bawri (Tanu Weds Manu Returns) • Jaane De (Qarib Qarib Singlle)
NEWEST HIT: • Aa Jao Na (Veere Di Wedding)

Raj Shekhar has worked as an AD with Aanand L Rai — something he laughingly admits he was quite bad at. The latter’s offer to write songs for Tanu Weds Manu, and later, its sequel turned out to be a game changer for Raj. But the Bihar-born songwriter says, “I feel every song is a turning point because you meet new people with every turn, which includes new singers, characters and composers etc.” Raj followed it up with Jaane De in Qarib Qarib Singlle, Madamji Go Easy in Hichki and Aa Jao Na in Veere Di Wedding. He admires Gulzar for his new phrases and his sense of observation and Javed Akhtar for his ability to say such beautiful things with ease. He’s got a couple of films lined up, including Aapke Kamre Mein Koi Rehta Hai and Screwdriver.

PUNEET SHARMA

SONGS: • Barbaadi (Aurangzeb) • Title track (Revolver Rani) • Bairaagi (Bareilly Ki Barfi) 
NEWEST HIT: • Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya (Sanju)

Indore-based Puneet Sharma received a lot of encouragement from actor-writer Piyush Mishra, when he decided to shift to Mumbai in 2012. Prior to that, Puneet had dabbled in writing songs for theatre and also for folk rock band Swarathma, something he continues to do till date. While he got his first break with Revolver Rani, Aurangzeb released first. Songs such as Bairaagi from Bareilly Ki Barfi and Dilli Ki Raat from Indu Sarkar followed. But it was Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju and its two songs, Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya and Baba Bolta Hai, which shot him into the limelight. “When Main Badhiya came out, everyone was humming the tune. I don’t think there is a greater experience than this. It was a huge milestone in my career,” says the lyricist. He adds, “I hope I get a chance to write songs related to depression, unemployment, on consent, about hunger and about the times we live in. Like Manto once said, ‘Agar woh bura lag raha hai to woh samaaj ka sach hai, main sach likh raha hoon sirf”. I just want to write the truth,” says Puneet. 

ABHIRUCHI CHAND

SONGS: • Le Chal Mujhe (NH10) • Buddhu Sa Mann (Kapoor & Sons)
NEWEST HIT: • Theher Ja (October) 

For Abhiruchi Chand, the process of songwriting has to be spontaneous. “If I dwell too much on an idea or try too hard, then the process becomes too mechanical. It has to be organic for it to sound honest,” says the former journalist, who shifted bag and baggage from Delhi to Mumbai, after realising that writing for films was her calling. Meeting people for work led her to meet composer Bann Chakraborty who asked her to write a song for NH10, which is how Le Chal Mujhe happened. She followed it up with Buddhu Sa Mann from Kapoor & Sons and this year, it’s the melodious Theher Ja from October that has everyone applauding her efforts. “I had no idea that Theher Ja would become so popular. At the time of writing it, I was just concerned about being able to deliver it within the deadline,” says Abhiruchi, who admits that she does work “fabulously well under deadlines”. The writer, who also assisted Rajkumar Hirani on dialogues for Sanju, reveals that there is some more exciting stuff that she is coming out with. “There was a time when I was getting to write only happy songs and I was sad, because I knew I could do so much more!” she laughs. And she promises that she will be showcasing all the “much more” very soon. 

HUSSAIN HAIDRY

SONGS: • Tu Chale Toh (Qarib Qarib Singlle) • Bahut Hua Samman (Mukkabaaz) 
NEWEST HIT: • Chacha Vidhayak Hain Hamare (Gurgaon)

Hussain Haidry doesn’t make a distinction between commercial and non-commercial songs. Instead, he sees songs as honest or dishonest. “An honest song would cater to the situation, to the character, to the screenplay and what you want to say in it. Use honest language and write something that’s simple and palatable to the masses,” says the spoken-word poet whose poem Hindustani Musalman went viral last year. The Indore-born Hussain was a CA before he decided to pursue the field of writing and moved to Mumbai in 2009. One thing led to another, and he found himself writing lyrics for two songs in Tanuja Chandra’s Qarib Qarib Singlle. But it was Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz that he wrote seven songs for, which made people sit up and notice the songwriter of tracks such as Bahut Hua Samman and Chhipkalli. He wrote for Gurgaon next and the title song for the web series Chacha Vidhayak Hain Hamare. There are a couple of other songs he is writing as well as screenplay and dialogue for a few other films. Hussain credits both Tanuja and Anurag for inspiring him in different ways. “While Tanuja was very specific and clear about what she wanted, with Anurag one had a lot of freedom, so I had to push myself to work hard. Both their films were learning experiences for me,” says Hussain. 

VIBHA SARAF

SONGS: • Dhoop (single) 
NEWEST HIT: • Behka (High Jack)

If you’ve read the credits of Raazi’s Dilbaro, you would have noticed that along with Harshdeep Kaur and Shankar Mahadevan, Vibha Saraf, too, has lent her voice to the lovely track. The singer has sung the Kashmiri folk part of the song. But Vibha isn’t only a singer. Having moved to Delhi from Kashmir at a very young age, she made the transition to Mumbai in 2013 to pursue a career in singing. Soon, she found herself singing jingles for more than 150 brands, sometimes even in 12 languages for different campaigns. While she started writing poetry as a child and did her master’s in media, hoping to become a journalist, she realised that only writing will not give her fulfilment. She wanted to sing and write. “That’s how songwriting happened. I’m not a Charlie Puth but a lot of my songs are in my voice notes, which are not published,” she revealed. A chance meeting with Nucleya and she found herself writing the lyrics for one of the songs, Dhoop, for his album and the trippy Behka from High Jack. The latter has over two million views on YouTube and even received an endorsement from Parineeti Chopra, who took to her Instagram account to do the #BehkaDropChallenge, calling it her “new favourite song”. Vibha likes to write her own songs and wants to collaborate with other musicians, as she finds such associations inspiring. Ask her what inspires her to put pen to paper and she says, “Anything that stirs my soul. It has to be a melody-oriented expression that leads me to lyric writing or maybe just the camaraderie I share with the person.”