MUMBAI: National Award winning lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya says song writers today are facing a creative challenge to create ‘catchy’ hook lines to make a ‘hit song’.

Bhattacharya spoke on Monday at the All About Music Conference, which had an interactive session with aspiring musicians, students and the media.

On the changing trends of music in Hindi cinema, he said: "Listeners are appreciating conversational lyrics and unusual template of songs as opposed to the fixed lyrical template of 'asthai', antara, mukhra, second mukhra and last paragraph.

"However, there is a pressure to create a hook line in every song and that, at times, restricts creativity."

Bhattacharya is known for songs like Abhi Mujh Mein Kahin and Channa Mereya.

In today's times, he feels they "have to put some words or line that can be used zillion times to make the song popular and somewhere that is not very logical when it comes to lyrics."

What's positive is conversational lyrics.

"Earlier, even if the character speaks in a colloquial language, they would start singing in poetic words. But now, we always keep the local dialect and colloquial essence intact in lyrics," he said.

With his roots in Lucknow, Bhattacharya wanted to become a singer. He started his journey as a lyricist and worked with music directors like Pritam, Amit Trivedi and penned some of the superhit songs including Badtameez Dil and Hanikarak Bapu.

(Source: IANS)