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Amitabh Bhattacharya: the singer who hit the jackpot as a lyricist
Lyricist-singer Amitabh Bhattacharya opens up on Bollywood, his preferred filmmakers and his first love, playback singing!
Right from teaching ABCD (
) to breaking the youth code with Locha-e-ulfat (
) and expressing love for your Zehnaseeb (
), Amitabh Bhattacharya has a feather too many to boast. Give him a tune, a situation and he has the right words to spin the magic.
It took him almost 10 years to establish himself and today he is among the top lyricist in Bollywood. Having said that, Amitabh still is in love with his first love, playback singing. “I landed in Mumbai with a dream to become a playback singer, but today I am happy and content being a lyricist who sings occasionally,” says the 36-year-old songwriter.
Speaking on the film fraternity, he minces no modesty, “There are two kind of producers in the industry. One, who critically thinks about his project and casts a lyricist accordingly and second, who want Amitabh Bhattacharya because aajkal TV pe uska naam bohot aata hai. And, I personally like working with the former group of filmmakers who believe in me, my work and think I am perfect as per the script’s requirement.”
Read: Amitabh Bhattacharya: The reluctant lyricist
He has recently collaborated with AR Rahman for Armaan Jain’s debut film. Ask him about his experience and he says, “It was amazing! In our first meeting with him (AR Rahman), I was awestruck. It was very uncomfortable at first, as he is a man of very few words, but it didn’t take much of a time to bond.”
The songwriter adds, “There is so much to learn from him. I used to act like a kid around him. Every song I wrote, I would ask him to sing it and he would smile and avoid. By the end of it, he said, ‘you want me to sing all the songs of the album?’ ... we laughed a lot.” Amitabh is elated by the fact that Rahman has sung a song in the album.
“I am a huge fan of AR Rahman, his voice too. I am so happy that I have written a song that has been sung by the maestro himself. It’s a dream come true,” he says.
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