The credit line

Seema Sachdeva

What’s in a name? Everything say lyricists and songwriters of Bollywood who are demanding that streaming platforms and music apps should give them credit for their works. Lyricist, scriptwriter, stand-up comedian Varun Grover, who has been on the forefront of the movement wherein lyricists are demanding that they be given credits for their works on streaming and music apps, says, “We had been talking about the issue for the past three years on various platforms. It was becoming repetitive but no one was listening. We realised that we needed to do something more to catch the attention of people.”

Thus came the song “Credit de do yaar,” which has received more than 2.36 lakh views in less than a week, the song which has been written by Varun, along with Kausar Munir, has struck an instant chord with the viewers. The peppy song, which has become the lyrics writers’ anthem, has been sung by Swanand Kirkire and has 15 other lyricists participating in it. The song featuring Sameer Anjaan, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Neelesh Misra, Manoj Muntashir, Mayur Puri, Kumaar, Shellee, Anvita Dutt, Swanand Kirkire, Kausar Munir, Raj Shekhar, Abhiruchi Chand, Hussain Haidry, Puneet Sharma and Varun Grover has been composed and produced by Chinmayi Tripathi and Joell Mukherjii.

Varun, who has given lyrics for films like Masaan, Gangs of Wasseypur, besides writing the script of Sacred Games, says, “We have a song for every situation. Now we needed to write a song for us. Kasur and I wanted the song to be such that it’d work for us and catch everyone’s attention without being a war cry.”

An ardent reader of The Tribune during his growing up years in Sundernagar, Varun says, “When writing the lyrics of the song, we consciously made an effort to keep the tone light-hearted since no one wants to hear serious stuff.”

Voice of the protest song, Swanand Kirkire, needs no introduction. According to the actor-singer, who has penned memorable lyrics like “Behti hawa sa tha who” (3 Idiots), “Bande mein hai dum”(Lage Raho Munnabhai),“Till we were buying tape recorders, there was a method to give credit to the lyricist. But when music consumption shifted to the digital format, music companies on various streaming and music apps stopped giving them credit. Streaming platforms like YouTube, and music apps like Spotify, Gaana , Jio Savan, and even Apple music don’t have a method of giving credit to the lyricists. These apps, which are mostly from the West, recognise singers as artistes and even music composers but there’s no space to give credit to the lyricists. In the West, usually the singer is the lyrics writer too. However in India, the lyrics writer, composer and singer are mostly different persons. The streaming app companies, which are mostly from the US, need to understand this and change their algorithm to include lyricists in the credits.

Kausar Munir, whose songs are said to weave magic, refuses to call it a fight.

She says, “This is not a controversy but a campaign, a happy demand, a persuasion. Getting credit for one’s work is a given, and one should not have to ask for it.”

“Of the two primary creators, the composer and the lyricist, often the latter is neglected by not printing his/her name in the credit line or sometimes when it’s is there, it’s printed incorrectly,” says Kausar who has penned memorable songs for films like Ishaqzaade, Ek Tha Tiger, Dhoom 3, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Dear Zindagi.

Chandigarh-born poet and dialogue writer Shellee aka Shailender Singh Sodhi, however is more vocal about this apathy. “It’s sad that it took a song to bring out the injustice being meted out to lyricists for so long”, says the dialogue writer, who has given lyrics for songs for films like Manmarziyaan, Udta Punjab, Philauri. He vociferously demands, “Why should the lyricist’s name not be there in the credits? That too for our own creation. It’s not as if we are asking for the moon. It’s our right.”

Narrating the incident of how when Salim Javed’s credits were missing from the films posters, the duo went all night painting their names on the film posters, says Shellee, for a lyricist, a credit line is the only way to get recognition for his creation. Financially too lyricists lose out on royalty when their name is missed out or incorrectly spelt in the credits, he says. So credit de do yaar!