“Patience and readiness to struggle are the most
important things one requires to make it big in
Bollywood,” says Prashant Ingole, who has shot
to fame with songs in movies like ‘Mary
Kom’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ after putting
in immense hard work over 15 long
years.
The Belgavi-based lyricist
who got his break in Bollywood
with the song, ‘Paisa hai power’ in the
movie ‘Aa Dekhen Zara’ in 2009, says he
first came to Mumbai in the year 2001 in the
hope of becoming a successful film lyricist. “I loved writing
poems since my college days. I didn’t just write for myself,
but also wrote four-liners for my friends, whenever they
demanded it. I came to Mumbai in 2001 and met a few
musicians. They told me that in this industry, one should
be prepared to struggle and work hard. If you have the guts
to do that, only then can you go ahead with your dream.
So I decided to stick with my dream,” expresses Prashant.
It was not an easy journey for Prashant. For around
six to seven years before his first break, he relentlessly
carried on the ritual of meeting musicians, travelling to
Mumbai and Pune in search of an opportunity, and at the
same time handling his father’s business. After ‘Aa Dekhen
Zara’, he got a chance to work for Bollywood movies like
‘Striker’ and ‘All the Best’, but it was with the song ‘Party
on my mind’ in ‘Race 2’ that kick-started his career. The
song became very popular with the audience, thus gaining
recognition for Prashant in the film industry as well as
among fans.
According to him, the secret ingredients to writing a
film song are understanding the mood of the situation,
getting into the skin of the character on whom it will be
filmed and determining what language is to be used.
“Understanding the lingo of the film is very important as
far as writing film songs is concerned. For instance, ‘Mary
Kom’ is a film based on the life of a Manipuri boxer. For this
film, if I had written a song in Urdu, it wouldn’t really fit.
Similarly, a song like ‘Malhari’ would never fit in the place
of ‘Party on my mind’,” explains Prashant.
He describes his experience of working with Sanjay
Leela Bhansali as “surreal”. He says, “Everyone in the film
industry dreams to work with Sanjay Leela Bhansali at least
once in their life. I knew Sanjay sir for around two and a
half years before ‘Bajirao Mastani’ and wished to work
with him some day. Writing songs for this movie was like a
dream come true for me. Sanjay sir is a perfectionist and I
feel that it’s an achievement to do even a single film with
this great director.”
On what he feels about the world record created by
his song ‘Gajanana’ as the ‘biggest launch of a song’, he
answers saying that he still gets goosebumps even thinking
about it. “Ganapati has always been my inspiration. When
Sanjay sir told me to write a song about Ganapati that
would be a background score to a crucial scene in the
movie, I wanted to write it in a way different from other
songs on this deity. Lord Ganesha has many names. So
I thought, why not write a song that incorporates all
these names, and this is how the song was written,” says
Prashant. He adds, “I couldn’t express in words how
delighted I was when my friends informed me of the world
record.”
Prashant Ingole says that he would use the workshop
at Vinsan Academy of Film and Media as an opportunity
to share his experience with the participants. “It would
be an interactive workshop rather than me just teaching
what lyric writing is about. I just want to tell everyone
that one need not have a PhD in Hindi to become a good
lyricist. What you need is an understanding of the scene
and a knack to express what you feel in correct words,” he
maintains.
He states that for the success of any song, all four
elements – lyrics, music, singing and video – must go
hand-in-hand. However, he finds lyrics to be the most
important factor. “It’s the lyrics of a song that connect
emotionally to the audience as they tell a story and give the
song a screenplay. But if they are not complemented well
by the other elements, the song will not reach the hearts of
the listeners. As I said earlier, all the elements must blend
well for the success of a song,” he opines.
Prashant is looking forward to a great year ahead with
a number of films in hand. He is also planning to launch an
international song he wrote on world peace, soon.
