Prasoon joshi:we need....

Prasoon Joshi: We need mediocrity to recognise good songs!

The Bhaag Milkha Bhaag writer talks about his writing process, working with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and his theory of why bad songwriting is here to stay

National Award winning songwriter/poet/ad-man Prasoon Joshi says creativity comes easy to him. In fact, he is proud that he can spontaneously be creative and have the lyrics flow as smooth as his songs sound, thanks to his background in advertising. It’s this training that has helped him handle so many professions so successfully, he says. Now eagerly awaiting the release of his debut film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag - for which he has written the screenplay as well as the script – Prasoon tells us in an exclusive interview his views on bad songwriting, the process of writing lyrics and movies and the lessons he learned from Milkha Singh

What was it like, switching from writing songs to writing a full-fledged script?

It was challenging, but also fun and a great way to learn. When I accepted Bhaag Milkha Bhaag I did so because I saw a challenge there. As a matter of principle, I always take projects I can learn from. And I have worked on Bhaag Milkha Bhaag for three years. It’s a continuous process, writing a script. There were no breaks, so to say, but I did some other work in between. But when I was writing, I did it in week-long sessions. There was a lot of fine tuning.

What is like it working with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra?

I’ve worked with him on a number of projects, and I respect him as a director. We go back a long way. We’re from the same fraternity – advertising – and this makes working with him very easy and exciting for me. The first time I worked with him was on RDB - I did dialogues and songs. The second time was on Delhi 6, where I again did songs and dialogues. But on this one I came in early, pretty much while the film was being conceptualised.