MUMBAI: He is often described as a perfectionist. Whether it's writing lyrics, script or making an ad, Prasoon Joshi produces his works with great panache and detail. The wordsmith has carved his niche in the industry with simple and powerful lyrics touching the hearts of one and all. As he turns a year older today, the lyricist talks to Radioandmusic.com about his love for writing and his journey in the world of Bollywood.

Revealing his birthday plans, the 39 year turned lyricist added, "Currently, I am in Delhi busy with work. My wife has accompanied me to the Capital and we plan to have a small family get together."

Hailing from a small town in Uttarakhand, Prasoon pursued MBA and then went to join the advertising fraternity, though the writer in him was always alive. Reminiscing his long innings in the industry, Joshi says, "It has been a roller coaster ride for me with lot of learnings. I have tucked a lot of experience, some sweet some bitter, all of which has made me older and more experienced."

Having penned down the lyrics for a number of films including Delhi 6, Taare Zameen Par, Fanaa and Rang De Basanti, Prasoon Joshi loves to experiment with diverse genres of lyrics and explore new subjects. While zeroing on a project it is the script of the film that is most important for Joshi. "The subject, the music director are important aspects to select a movie. I try and select as wide genres as possible. I did Taare Zameen Pe because I had never written for children before. I took Rang De Basanti because I wanted to write about the youth, their problems and their anger."

Talking about his favourite work Joshi reveals, "My current favourite is Maula from Delhi 6. I think AR Rahman has done a fantastic job. The song is a perfect amalgamation of words and the music."

As Bollywood comes of age, a lot of eyebrows have been raised over the detoriating poetic quality in the songs. A lot of hue and cry was raised over the track Munni Badnaam Hui from the recently relased Dabangg. Giving his take on the new trend of lyrics Joshi rues, "I am fine with such work. Every era has seen all kinds of work being produced. Certain kind of work good or bad is enjoyed by the audience momentarily and then they forget it. But only timeless work with good craft is what makes leaves its mark in history. But personally I think they wouldn't be in audience memory for long."

With the ever changing trend, Hinglish has emerged as the latest phenomenon in Bollywood. Joshi though sees no problem with the new fashion of including English words in tracks. "Language is a ever flowing river which keeps on adding new things to widen its course of flow," adds Joshi in true poetic style. "A language can keep itself alive only by enriching itself from various other languages. English language for example has taken words from various other languages, enriched itself at the same time retained its originality and has become oh so popular. Similarly, we need to retain our heritage and suck the good out of the other languages without losing the essence or soul of our language. I don't mind English, French, Arabic words coming in as long as they do not come at the cost of overthrowing or over powering Hindi."

Prasoon also adds that a lyricist in Hindi Cinema should know Urdu as it becomes an added advantage. "It a beautiful language and often used in our music. Hence it is always an advantage to know the language though not imperative."

Not many know that Prasoon has also written the lyrics for several non-film albums including Dooba Dooba, Abb Ke Sawan, Mann Ke Manjire, though he steers away from the genre these says. "It was a long time ago that I wrote lyrics for albums. I think people's interest has declined in this genre of music possibly due to growing popularity of Bollywood. A lot of money is spent in producing these albums. The intention of promoting from the music label side is also not there The seriousness of music in non-film genre started to fade out It was all half-hearted attempt. Hence there was no point in getting involved in a project in which there was little interest from all parties."

Giving his stance on the Copyright issue which has long been a bone of contention for the music industry, Joshi says, "Laws have to be corrected and artistes should be given their due. The issue needs to be holistically looked upon with interest of all parties taken into account. The industry need to present a good example to the next generation before they loose interest in creative fields."

Joshi has his plate full this year with several art projects in hand. "I am doing a couple of art films. Apart from this he has also penned the lyrics of Imraan Khan and Deepika Padukone starer Break Ke Baad the music of which is scored by Vishal Shekher." Lately, it is his scriptwriter avatar that has surfaced to the shore as he has written the script of Bhag Milkha Bhag and working and few others.

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