Aalok Shrivastav | Renowned poet and notable bollywood lyricist, who is a critically and internationally acclaimed writer and author of Academi award-winning books Aameen and Afreen, speaks with SUPRIYA RAMESH about his poem for Rajesh Tailang's short film Selfie, his bollywood journey and
upcoming work
Tell us about your inclination towards writing.
I always wanted to become a poet. When I told my mother that I want to become a poet and writer, initially she was hesitant but then she gave affirmation to follow my dream. My father was quite reluctant about it. Being upset about it, I used to go to my mom and tell her that I will become a successful writer and one day Jagjit ji and Pankaj Udhas ji will sing my ghazals. I was 15 years old that time.
Later on, my family supported me. When I was around 13, I used to spend a lot of my time in listening to ghazals. When my friends used to go out to play in summer, one of my friends and I used to bring cassettes of Jagjit, Pankaj and others and play them on tape recorder. We used to listen to them sitting in a closed room. Whenm I turned 18, the passion was again ignited in me. I met two friends who were from the writing fraternity and I also felt that it should not only be a hobby but a profession. Since then, there was no looking back.
Tell us about your bollywood journey and projects you have worked for.
My literary works have been given voice by ghazal maestro late Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Jaswinder Singh, Sudeep Banerji, Shankar Mahadevan, Rekha Bharadwaj, Shaan, Kailash Kher, Richa Sharma, Javed Ali, Malini Awasthi, classical singer Ustad Rashid Khan, Shubha Mudgal and Amitabh Bachchan. I have also collaborated with renowned sitarist Anoushka Shankar for the album Traveller, which was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2012.
Then I won accolades as a lyricist for the award-winning Indo-American film Patang: The Kite and for the theme song of the film Can't Take This Shit Anymore. The film won the National Award in the Best Film On Social Issue category. I have given lyrics in multi-starer movie Vodka Diaries. His album, Eternal sung and composed by ghazal singer Jaswinder Singh received the AAMA Award for the Best Album Of The Year.
How was your experience with Rajesh Tailang while working for Selfie?
My association with Rajesh Tailang as an artist and friend has been since a long time. We used to always think of working on something together. He got an idea of making this short film but he was stuck with the script and how to present it. Later, he approached me with the idea of portraying the short film in the form of a poem rather than a script with dialogues. He narrated the basic idea and his thoughts behind this film to me in order to write a poem to convey the story. You can say, the short film is based on the poem and it depicts the whole story in a poetic way.
When did your creative association start with Amitabh Bachchan?
My creative association with him started almost 10 years back. When Aadesh Shrivastav who was like my elder brother and music composer listened to one of my poems, Aao Soche Zara, Aao Dekhe Zara Humne Kya Kya Kiya. He called me up and said that he wants to make it like a nation-song and wants it to be recited by Mr Bachchan. So, this is how my association started with Amitabh sir.
Aadesh Shrivastav sung this song and few paragraphs where recited by Amitabh Bachchan, which was called as Nation Song. It was played across all media platforms on August 15, 2012. Post that, I used to send him poems, sometimes he tweeted them.
In 2016, a programme called Ek Nayi Subha, which was organised in Delhi (India Gate) on completion of two years of present Government, I got the privilege to write the content for the show alongside Amitabh Bachchan. Later on, he also recited my poem Main Naye Bharat Ka Chehra Hoon, which I had written for Doordarshan on their 60th anniversary and it got viral instantly.
I have also worked with him in KBC as an expert advise many times. It was a privilege to share screen space with him. Since he is a son of a very big poetic personality, his generosity, love and respect for poems is phenomenal.
And he equally shows that appreciation towards poets and writers. The best part about working with him is that he is well-versed in Hindi. It gives you that ease and comfortable space to work with him. He also writes very well and the suggestions he gave while working were really imperative. Working with such a legend is like an opportunity to great learning.
Tell us something about your recent collaboration with Ashutosh Rana for writing Hindi translation of Shiv Tandav Stotra.
For a long time, Ashutosh ji had this wish of translating the Shiv Tandava Stotras in an easy language. So, when he came up with this idea, I was interested and took it with excitement.
I was very happy that with the blessings of Lord Shiva, I translated the shlokas beautifully and executed the whole thing very effortlessly with him.
We both are very spiritual towards lord Shiva and collaborating for something like this feels amazing. He has recited some of my poems but this is something bigger we worked on for.