Bharadwaj Gali is a budding lyricist from Ongole. You’ve heard his song Doragari from Brochevarevarura, a Vivek Sagar musical. Talented, hard working and a very down to earth person, Bharadwaj has a way with words. All he needs is a push to go to the next level. Y.Sunita Chowdhary of Klapboardpost.com spoke to the lyricist who is waiting for the release of his next numbers. What exactly does Bharadwaj do for a living? “I am doing an IT job and I live in Hyderabad. I was working in Pune in 2014 and even while I was working, I would never waste time. If I find a small gap, I pick up a book. I love reading books and writing stories and songs. While writing songs, small ones, my brother who is a keyboard teacher suggested that I fill the tune with lyrics for the ones he composed. He appreciated what I had written. I would write songs for his rough tunes and felt that it was close to movie literature, though not great I thought it was adequate. The subsequent year I wanted to test waters and came to Hyderabad to look out for an opportunity in the cinema field. My colleague Ashok is a service oriented man and whenever he finds someone looking for a solution, he tries to help. One fine day, when he got to know I was interested in songs, he took me to director Vivek Athreya. I took the songs with me, all those that I had written for my brother.”
He further shares, “A director named Bharath Jasmine..alias Mithra of Yem Chesthunnav (of L Gang, a club) became a member of a club. I am a writer and he is a director. I quite like his direction. He had made a sensible, short film called India’s Daughter, and when I met him he was doing a web series called Desi Gal. I wrote the first song for it. I showed that too to Vivek Athreya and he said I could try writing for films. He didn’t promise me anything. After one month, Ashok again took me to Vivek Athreya, he was shooting Brochevarevarura. Vivek gave me a tune and asked if I could write lyrics for it. I didn’t know who the music director was. I later learnt that Vivek Sagar was composing for the film. I was very happy and why wouldn’t I? He is my favourite music director. I wrote Doragari Sogasari and it got applause. I wrote some more but due to the pandemic, it hasn’t been released. I wrote Yem Chestunnav for Bharath and the music was composed by Gopi Sunder. It is in post production. I wrote four songs for Cult Gang too. It is in post production now.”
It was Bharadwaj’s grandfather who inspired him and goaded him to tread. The lyricist then lived in Yedugundlapadu which had roughly a population of 1500. The place has a library constructed by the British and Bharadwaj’s grandpa had a membership. He recollects, “I began reading young. I guess I was in the fifth standard when I read Balamitra, Chandamama. We were not capable of buying books, so the library was of great use to me. I passed the 10th standard when I was 13 years old and read Yandamuri and Chalam’s, Ayn Rand’s novels. Studying in Telugu medium became an advantage, I got a free flow of language and expression. I have written eight stories. Once my story got rejected, so I never gave it to the publishers. Couple of years back, I began writing for a website called Kahani. One of the stories that I had written named Nakshatra for a competition, fetched me a prize money of ten thousand. It gave me a lot of confidence.”
Bharadwaj goes on to say that he likes his IT job as well as writing for films. He has been a gold medalist in B.Tech and likes coding and took up a software job owing to family responsibilities. Also around that time, he had no clarity on life so opted for software. During weekends, he tried his hand at many things like business etc to make money. Writing songs was one of them and he liked it immensely. He adds, “Cinema literature doesn’t require any sort of grammar though it is like a science. It is important to know Chandassu to get the grip of the word that sounds well. I will have to write poetry according to grammar but nowadays, songs require no rules. Chandassu ani telustheyne paata rayagalaru aney rule ledhu but if you know it, you can write effectively. If you have a grip over grammar, a simple song can be written well and also it has power to rectify and present a profane word without sounding offensive. It can be taken to a next level. Also it will be good if we have a knowledge of ragas.”
A certain amount of profanity has crept into lyrics, does he think it will influence the younger generation? “I am not that scared that this generation will get spoiled if there is a cuss word. They are smart enough to know how much to take and not take. About our duty, a director tells us about a character and says we should use words that the character is required to convey and is important. We follow his instructions. When someone tells me to use an English word, I’d say I will write in Telugu but in case the music director is not happy, we have to change it. I didn’t come here only for money. If someone says he is paying me to write, I don’t have to do it. They don’t actually say such stuff these days. At the end of the day if the director convinces me, I’ll do it. I idolise Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry.” What is his brother doing these days? Bharadwaj quips, “Suryatej runs Octave musical institute and gives music lessons to children. He has worked on some music albums too, plays guitar and violin. I know how to write songs but not how to take it to people. Let life take its time,” signs off Bharadwaj philosophically.
