Varun Grover, Swanand Kirkire, Kausar Munir and Mayur Puri on demanding credits musically

Four of Bollywood's top lyricists - Swanand Kirkire, Varun Grover, Kausar Munir and Mayur Puri - talk about their fight to demand credit in an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times' Jyoti Sharma Bawa. They are up against the practice of not giving due credit to naming lyricists in the description that accompanies popular songs across digital and audio streaming platforms. They chose to do it by coming up with a song, Credits De Do Yaar, which features 15 of India's top songwriters. They talk about how the industry is losing respect for the wordsmiths and the missing credits are symptomatic of the problem. Even as they remain hopeful for classical Hindi film music - they believe remixes are just a phase - they hope that the industry would realise the importance of the lyricist, citing how they are often forgotten at song launches or are not tagged when the song is being promoted on social media. “Credits de do yaar,” is their plea filled with Gandhigiri.