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MUMBAI: If you think that your passion can be your profession only in Imtiaz Ali movies, you’ve got to meet Tanshik Nabar. He is a qualified architect but works as a copywriter at a leading advertising agency and currently is soaking in the success of the recent chartbuster Raftaara from the super hit Malayalam movie Lucifer, written by him. Starring megastar Mohanlal, the movie has made 150 crores and still going strong and the song has crossed over five million views and still counting. What makes Raftaara special is that it’s a full-fledged Hindi song in a Malayalam movie.
However, to begin with, what is an architect doing in lyric writing? Tanshik shares, “I always had a bug of writing in me. Both my parents and my sister are architect; therefore, I too took it up. Studying architecture gave me a well round perspective – be it about history or art and it helped me become a good writer. However, I always knew I would never be a practising architect. As soon as I completed my studies, I worked at an architecture firm but later took up the job of copywriter and on the side; I used to write lyrics too.”
He started with Marathi movies, “I had written a Hindi song called Ishq Hogaya for a Marathi movie, Ishq Wala Love. The song didn’t pick up as much as we thought it to. However, the big break came with Raftaara.”
Tanshik is ecstatic, to put it mildly, just about being a part of this song let alone about the thunderous success. He shares humbly, “I am too small to say anything about Deepak Sir (Deepak Dev, Music composer) or Jyotsna (The well-known Malayalee singer). The composition is not the regular melody and not to be easily forgotten.”
Continuing about the singer, he says, “I was surprised to hear the song for the first time and to know that the singer is not used to Hindi, considering her phonetics and pronunciations were so perfect. We also recorded the song with another well-known singer, however, Prithviraj Sukumaran, the director, felt Jyotsna’s version was most suited.”
His association with this song is similar to that of Jyostna’s, as he shares, “I’ve known Deepak Sir for a very long time and we share a good rapport. I had written an anthem for a Cricket team in Dubai. Deepak sir was in Kochi, I was in Mumbai and the cricket team in Dubai, but we all worked together for a lovely song. Deepak sir recommended my name to Prithviraj who had already thought of another well-known lyricist to write the song. However, Deepak sir sent me for the brief and asked me to write lyrics for this one anyway. Based on my understanding, I wrote a rough draft for the same and shared it. When Prithviraj read the lyrics, he liked them and 70 per cent of the rough draft are retained in the song.”
The YouTube video of the song might give us an impression that the song is an item number but, in the movie, it’s not, as Tanshik clarifies, “This song takes the movie to the climax. Lucifer is a political thriller and many sentences in this song actually hold true to the story. Like the line, yahan mamuli nahi koi, iss dhande mein galti bhi hai sahi. This implies that even wrong doings get converted in good deeds in politics. These lines suit the narrative of the song and the whole climax is unravelled during and post this song. Therefore, not only is the song a hit but is extremely crucial to the movie.”
The journey has just begun for Tanshik. His next is as big as writing for a Mohanlal movie. Tanshik says, “I have written two songs for a web series called Bandish Bandits. These songs are composed by the legendary music trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The series is being shot currently and is expected soon.”
