I am not politically charged: Amitabh Bhattacharya

Despite the stupendous success of 'Dangal', lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya remains as humble and soft-spoken as ever. His body of work reveals the bandwidth of his imagination and rare felicity with everyday language. The National Award winner, who has his hands full with 'Jagga Jasoos', 'Thugs of Hindostan' and 'Bhavesh Joshi', gets candid in an interview with Pratik Ghosh.

You wanted to be a singer and ended up being a lyricist. Have your singing abilities helped in lyric-writing?

I majorly write to tunes, so for me it is easier if I hum a tune and then write words to it. That's what I do – fitting words to tunes. In that sense, I'm more of a technician. The moment I hear a tune, my thoughts flow better. It's all in my mind; once the structure is ready, I sing it and when I'm convinced, I put it down on paper.

What are your views on item songs objectifying women?

I have written a few, including 'Chikni Chameli' in 'Agneepath' and 'Pyar ki Pungi' in 'Agent Vinod'. In cinematic terms, an item song is not necessary most times. See, the irony is such songs are almost always popular with the masses. When I was growing up, it was 'Choli Ke Peechhe Kya Hai' from 'Khalnayak'. For 'Chikni Chameli', I mostly got frowns. But you also have to appreciate the fact that if I am on board a film as a lyricist, writing an item song is part of the contract. I can't say, "Oh, I will not write an item number". That's unprofessional. All I can do is try my best to not lapse into vulgarity.

What standard will you try to maintain? Isn't 'Chikni Chameli' derogatory?

If you say chikni chameli, it means a fair, attractive girl. But when you get down to describing her anatomy, I am uncomfortable with that. It helps if you collaborate with like-minded people. In 'Chikni Chameli', you can't hold me responsible for the way it is picturised. Vulgarity is also a matter of perception. Lots of people felt offended by Balam pichkari jo tune mujhe maari ('Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani'), but it's a song on Holi!

What are your views on censorship?

What we need is certification, and not censorship. It seems that as a population, we are filtering out a little edge in humour and sarcasm in the name of censorship. Kuch bolo hi maat, kuch mazakh-hi maat karo. Kisiko bura lag jayega, woh galat interpretation kar lega (Don't say anything; don't make fun; it might offend someone's sensibilities). Maybe people are trying to play safe these days. We should have a mature system to deal with both censorship and the audiences. One needs to look at films differently. We did the song 'Bhaag DK Bose'! There was such rumpus over it. On paper, I am saying 'Bhaag DK Bose' – it's wordplay. If we filter out such innocuous things, then we are a vanilla society. We can't shut all things out!

You have never made public statements on controversial issues, even when they affected the film industry.

Firstly, nobody sought my opinion. I am a shy and private person. I am not very active on social media. I have a Facebook account, where I write about my work. I am also uncomfortable with making grand pronouncements that arm-chair critics do on FB and Twitter. I am usually immersed in my work and happy in my own world. It has now become very easy to be misquoted and misinterpreted. Who wants to court trouble? Also, I am not politically charged. See, people think that because I am a writer, I should have a strong political ideology. That is what, perhaps, makes me different. Of course, I do get bothered from time and time but that doesn't mean I have to hit the streets. Why do I have to fall into a stereotype of a writer-activist? I do have a spine, but I won't go out of my way to project my angst. My toxins are reserved for my work.

In what way are you different from other contemporary lyricists?

All of them, such as Irshad Kamil, Kausar Munir, Anvita Dutt Guptan, Kumar Mayur Puri, and Varun Grover, have had a background in some form of writing before they turned lyricists. They have written poems, shayari and scripts. Till date, I haven't even written two pages of a diary. The only other Hindi writing I had done was doing homework as a student under compulsion. I have only written to tunes and that's what makes me different.

I am more of a technician than an artiste.

My thoughts come from life. I can imagine myself in situations and pen down my ideas in a simple way, in the manner we speak, the layman's language. People think I have read a lot and that has opened my mind, but in reality, my thoughts come from the life I have led. I came to the city when I was a 21-year-old lad and now I am 40, so this journey has taught me a lot and that's all that I have to draw upon.