Lyricist AM Turaz reveals the toughest song he wrote for Bhansali’s Heeramandi

Lyricist AM Turaz has a 12year association with Sanjay Leela Bhansali which began with the film Guzaarish He has worked with him on every project since then except for Goliyon ki Rasleela RamLeela He has written 8 songs for Heeramandi which have become quite popular Ahead of World Music Day 2024 Turaz talks about the process of working with Bhansali the toughest song in Heeramandi and the declining quality of Hindi film songsThe most challenging song in HeeramandiTuraz has written the popular songs lsquoChaudhvi Shabrsquo lsquoMasoom Dil Hai Merarsquo and lsquoTilasmi Baaheinrsquo among others for Heeramandi But the biggest challenge for him was the last song in the series ndash lsquoHumein Dekhni Hai AzadirsquoldquoAzadi was a challenge for me because there have been many songs on this Plus Faiz Ahmed Faiz has a popular nazm Hum Dekhenge we had to make our song sound different from that It was interesting working on this song particularly because we quite easily forget that women were an integral part of our freedom struggle People sing praises of the male freedom fighters Women too made significant sacrifices so that the men could fight I got the opportunity to bring their pain to the fore with this song I feel very proud of that songrdquo he sharesShooting the song was also a surreal experience ldquoWhen I was standing in the crowd on the set when the song was being shot I got goosebumps We havenrsquot seen the struggle of women during the fight for freedom being highlighted in any film so far It took me many attempts to write the song the way I wanted tordquo he saysHow did the Bhansali association beginI had met him during Saawariya but we couldnrsquot work during that time Then he called me for Guzaarish I have been working with him since then I couldnrsquot work with him during RamLeela probably because I was busy with other things I am also a poet I present my work at events around the world Then he called me for Bajirao Mastani I wrote some of Deepikarsquos dialogues also in that filmNot just UrduIt is not just Urdu songs and poetry that Turaz contributes to ldquoOne of my most popular Hindi film songs is Kabhi Jo Badal Barse I also wrote a song for the film Chakravyuh Itrsquos just that Mr Bhansali has been composing certain kind of songs lately so I have been tagged mostly as an Urdu lyricist Also I am a poet first and then a lyricist Urdu is a mix of multiple languages and that is used in our films toordquo he elaboratesFilmmakers reject poetryldquoSince I am also a poet I try to keep my thoughts profound while writing for songsrdquo Turaz says Does he find more filmmakers like Bhansali who encourage quality writing ldquoLyricists are not completely responsible for lowquality songs I will blame the filmrsquos makers also They do not understand poetry so they reject it saying this doesnrsquot fit into our filmrdquoldquoThree people got national awards for songs I wrote Sanjay Leela Bhansali won best Music Director Arijit Singh won Best Playback Singer Male for the song lsquoBinte Dilrsquo Kruti Mahesh won Best Choreography for lsquoGhoomarrsquo These songs wouldnrsquot have worked if the audience didnrsquot like them Filmmakers say todayrsquos generation isnrsquot interested in poetry Thatrsquos not true at allrdquo he insists