'Animal', 'Mismatched' Lyricist Raj Shekhar Says He Hasn't Been Credited For nearly 30 Songs: 'Sometimes You Get Tunes On WhatsApp'

Renowned lyricist Raj Shekhar, known for penning chartbuster songs in projects like ‘Animal’, ‘Mismatched’ and the recent Shahid Kapoor starrer ‘Deva’, says out of the 100 odd songs he has penned over the years, he hasn’t been credited for nearly 30 of them.

Shekhar, who has written songs like ‘Pehle Bhi Main’ from ‘Animal’, ‘Ishq Hai’ from ‘Mismatched 3’, ‘Aise Kyun’ from ‘Mismatched 2’ and ‘Bhasad Macha’ from ‘Deva’, said it’s important for industry to come together and safeguard credit of the writers.

Speaking during the session “Words That Sing” at the 7th edition of the Indian Screenwriters Conference (ISC)— hosted by the Screenwriters Association of India (SWA)— Shekhar said, “I think we’re in the transition phase as a society we’re making mistakes but we’re slowly finding out where. Out of 100, 28-30 songs of mine are not credited to me.

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“That’s just me but what about others who can’t speak for their due credit? I urge the audience to find out the name of the lyricist if they like a song. We write with such passion and hardwork,” the lyricist added.

Shekhar—who made his debut as a lyricist with ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ in 2011—also highlighted areas within the industry which need to change for better creativity.

“There is a gap between the screenwriter and the lyricist. There are plenty of times when I got to know tunes on WhatsApp without knowing the space it was coming from. The creative collaboration with director and writer feels missing as it was in times of Raj Kapoor and Shailendra,” he added.

At the session, moderated by screenwriter Hussain Haidry, Shekhar was joined by filmmaker-lyricist duo Siddharth-Garima, known for penning songs in ‘Bajirao Mastani’, ‘Padmaavat’, ‘Animal’ and ‘Kalki 2898 AD’.

Garima noted how music streaming platforms such as Spotify need to design “a new crediting system” for artists in India.

“The platform follows the Western model, where performers write their own lyrics. However, in India, songs are often sung and written by different artists,” Garima said.

Siddharth, meanwhile, said the larger problem is also the reluctance to accept change, which is inevitable.

“Either it’s happening for good or bad, but acceptance is the first step. For example, Artificial intelligence is here and changing things. Now, it’s just artificial intelligence is here, if artificial imagination shows up, we’re doomed. We’ll be fighting for our words, not just credits. We have to adapt,” he added.