'Rang De' is one of the most important projects in Shreemani's career. In this interview, he talks about writing songs for the film with a special reference to Venky Atluri and Devi Sri Prasad. The film will release in theatres on March 26.
Venky Atluri is a good writer before being a director. He is open to discussion. And he doesn't make it rigid. He doesn't put tough deadlines. I have had this easy rapport with him since his first movie, 'Tholi Prema'.
There are songs in 'Rang De' for which the lyrics were written first and the compositions were done later. 'Emito Idhi' had the lines written before Devi Sri Prasad garu came up with the composition.
DSP garu has got his own style of approaching a song. He examines the song situation and its context thoroughly before creating a tune. It becomes a creative process for the lyricist as well.
'Nee Kallu Neeli Samudram' from '30 Rojullo Preminchadam Ela' and 'Idhe Kadha' from 'Maharshi' are two of the songs that have brought me a lot of name in recent past.
People ask me how much time I take to pen a song. There is nothing uniform about it. There are songs that took me less than an hour, like 'Varsham Munduga' from 'Sega', which was my first claim to fame. Then there are songs like 'Bullet' song from 'Attarintiki Daredi', which took quite long.
Writing for movies like 'Maharshi' has been a great experience. As a lyricist, I have the urge to pen high-end songs. 'Maharshi' had a song titled 'Idhe Kadha', which is special. I wrote the song first before Devi garu set it to tune.
When asked about the 'Saranga Dariya' controversy: I can't say much about it because I don't know much about the copyright laws. But folk songs getting popularity through mainstream movies is a good trend. A lot of folk songs are not popular. They need to be brought into the limelight.
When asked about the YouTube views that songs get: I don't bother much about the YouTube views that my songs get. For a song to become a chartbuster, the composer, lyricist and singer play their parts.
