Irshad Kamil: Honoured to be the first Indian lyricist to win the Pushkin Prize

Irshad Kamil is all set to travel to Russia, and it’s not for a vacation

Irshad Kamil is all set to travel to Russia, and it’s not for a vacation. The lyricist-poet has been awarded with the Pushkin Prize, a Russian state honour given for literary excellence. “I feel honoured and humbled to win the title. Being the first lyricist to be awarded with this honour, I wish to believe that I have made all Indians proud,” Kamil tells us, adding that he will travel to Moscow on November 3 to receive the award on November 7.

Irshad Kamil

While Indian writers like Uday Prakash and Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari have won the Pushkin Prize in the past, Kamil is the first film lyricist to earn it. Ask him that in a country (Russia), where Hindi or Urdu is not the first language, what made him eligible for the honour, and the writer explains, “Russia and India have always been great admirers of each other’s literature and translations have helped build the bridge [of language differences]. I am a huge admirer of the works of (Russian writers) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Rasul Gamzatov because of good translations.”

As someone who has won several awards in India for his Hindi film outings, does he believe in awards? “I am not sure [if I believe in them or not]. But yes, state and national honours are undeniably special,” Kamil ends.