Exclusive! Shankar Mahadevan: Music and lyrics are as important as cinematography, and due credit must be given

Over the years, there have been several musicians who have spoken about not getting their due credit in the movies. Nowadays, with the rise of social media and music apps, there are several iconic musical artists and lyricists who are rediscovered by people and bask in the love they receive. But do the musicians feel the same? During an exclusive interaction with OTTplay, Shankar Ehsaan Loy (Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa) and Nikhil D'Souza gave their take on if musicians are getting their due credit in the industry.

Ehsaan started by saying, "When I see that starting to happen, you know, the media is getting stronger. I'm not talking about social media, I'm just talking about it in general. Even from the time of Dil Chahta Hai, when we did the music, composers started performing the songs more often. Suddenly, people are faced with being interviewed separately in terms of the making of the film. There's always a bit of that. All that used to come on television at one point, but now, of course, with social media, people have got their things, their social handles, and they communicate with the audience and contact them. It's very different now. So it's much easier and much more. It gives more of a face to the composer and gives them a personality outside of just the movie."

However, Shankar had a different and strong opinion. The singer-composer stated, "But I have a different viewpoint. I think that in a film, due credit should be given to the composer and lyricist, which is not being done. Actually, the amount of credit that needs to be given, the composers' names appear on the final slate in today's time. When the person has finished his popcorn and has already left the theatre, your name comes up. The singers, the lyricist, the arrangers, and the people who have worked very hard; that comes right even after the catering teams' credits. I really feel that just like your cinematography, or it's as important as your producer, or director, or your line producer, whatever, those are also important. But I think music and lyrics are also equally important as the singers; they are the medium. So please put it out there so that people will come to know. None of the posters have 'music by' or whatever. Whereas in the olden days, your names used to be there. I mean, some of them had their photos taken too, but we're not asking for that. I'm just saying that at least put the names out there. Especially if it's a musical, if somebody has composed music, put the names out there."

To which Ehsaan added, "It all kind of depends on if all the titles come at the beginning of the film or at the end of the film. If they come at the beginning of the film, your name comes one or two slates before the director's name, and their name always comes last. So you know, it's always lyrics by so and so, music by so and so. And then it comes at the end, and then it comes in a different music section, which comes right at the end. But that time, no one was watching."

While Nikhil shared, "Well, my take on your first question was about social media, Spotify, and everything. It's a great place to discover new music. In fact, Ehsaan was showing me some songs that he had discovered. People would just have a few thousand listeners a month. You would never hear about these people otherwise, but you're discovering them these days because of the new medium. Having said that, I feel the people who seem to be more active on social media, or overactive, are the ones who love attention and seem to be getting more of it. Also, because they're always in your face, and algorithms in social media favour that. So if you're a quiet, inward musician, you have to just hope that you have hardcore fans who will keep listening to you and follow you for whatever you're doing."

He added, "So there are two sides to it. I feel, on the one hand, you have access to as much music as you want. On the other hand, there's also too much of it. It's becoming difficult to sift through all of that to find the right people you want to listen to. It is absolutely critical that composers and lyricists receive their due, and I believe it is past time. Now's the time that the current producers can change that."

Loy concluded by saying, "The way I see it, is that you've got 24 hours in a day that belong to you as an individual. How much of your time slice do you want to offer to any of these avenues or verticals? Okay, right, and at what price? It's as simple as that. That's the way I see it."

Nikhil D'Souza has composed and crooned the title track of Modern Love Mumbai, Mausam Hai Pyaar. While Shankar Ehsaan Loy has composed the song Shuru Se Shuru for the short film, Cutting Chai from the anthology, sung by the former along with Shashaa Tirupati.