Venue: Student Center, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, USA
Date: September 08, 2000
There was a speech by Sri Veturi gaaru in the auditorium at the said venue, addressing a small gathering of around 50-60 people, mostly students at the University and the families that live in the town. The 3-hour speech was quite interesting, and everyone listened to every word with interest. His speech was frank, with no hesitation, he talked about many things, pertaining to the film industry and some other things too. I enjoyed the speech, I was quite happy that he came to such a small place, and that I could talk to him so closely! I had this rare opportunity of interviewing a great personality from showbiz, for the first time ever! He was cordial enough to agree to the interview, though I didn't inform him in advance. I thank the organizers Mr. and Mrs. Kothappa Chetty and Mr. Prakash Rao for consenting to arrange this interview. The interview was quite informal and the way he spoke removed all my fear (as this was my first interview) in the first question itself! He is a nice man too, not just a nice lyricist. Here is the full interview, with the original Telugu words in brackets where I couldn't find a very good conveyance of meaning.
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| NaChaKi (left) interviewing Veturi Sundararamamurthy |
NaChaKi: How and when did you get interested in writing lyrics?
Veturi: Well, thats my nature (pravRtti). Every person responds in his/her own way one can be a sculptor, or an artist, or a singer, etc. I always had this zeal to write lyrics and poems, adding to the background of the family I hail from, and that helped me. Mere interest doesnt help develop such passion, it also requires nature, something that should come by birth.
NaChaKi: O Seeta Katha (directed by K. Viswanath) is your first movie, right? How did you get to know Sri K. Viswanath?
Veturi: I wrote a yakshagaanam titled sirikaakolanu chinnadi..., for which the music was scored by Sri Pendyala Nageswara Rao and it was played by famous artistes. It was broadcast in the All India Radio. Many people complimented it, saying the theme was very good, and there was a neat poetic touch in the songs, etc. That tape was heard by K. Viswanath gaaru. He beckoned me and told, "I was very much impressed by the play, hereafter you should be my lyric-writer, I invite you to the field. I found a person I was searching for since long, and so you should write for me."
NaChaKi: You penned a harikatha as your first song. Its a very rare chance, and also a feat. How did you feel when you were asked to write such a song.
Veturi: When starting out to write a film song, I obviously felt that fear and tension in me too. But since I knew the metre (Chandassu) and all required for a harikatha, I could write it with ease, but as I used complicated words, it caused difficulty to the singer P. Leela, and the great composer Sri K.V. Mahadevan a swarabrahma who can compose any sort of lyric tuned it in 5 minutes! Though the words could have been simpler, I had to use that way while abiding to the rules of writing a harikatha. Hats off to the director for accepting such a lyric from a debutant writer, no one else wouldnt probably take that!
NaChaKi: You have got many awards, sir. Which one of them was the most satisfactory?
Veturi: Any award is satisfactory, as long as it is given for a good song. But, sometimes one gets awards quite unexpectedly I am not commenting or pointing a mistake. For example, the song raalipOyE puvvaa neeku raagaalendukE... got an award. But I feel that the song vENuvai vacchaanu bhuvanaaniki, gaalinai pOtaanu gaganaaniki... (from the same movie) is more deserving. It will be unjust for me to compare songs I have written. But, there are songs for which I expected awards but never received any, and also songs which won awards though I did not expect! all such judgements depend on those circumstances. Especially, there is this Sitara award given out by Ramoji Rao. I got three of the four awards given out, all those songs were very deserving.
NaChaKi: You were once ruling this field of lyrics in Telugu Cinema (Ekachatraadhipatyam, as they say), but now youre writing too less number of songs.?
Veturi: Even at that time, I wrote in the same proportion. The number of movies reduced, and the number of lyricists increased. The number of films made came down from 300 to 40 or 50 a year, its natural that I am writing rarely.
NaChaKi: These days, you are writing more for dubbed films than for straight Telugu films. How do like this change? Are there any differences between the two, as far as lyrics are concerned?
Veturi: Actually, I am writing more for straight Telugu movies, even now. But, the dubbing movies I have worked for are mostly turning out to be popular and commercial hits. When writing for dubbing films, there exists an original, and the original lip movement should also match the words we write, you know that; this causes a lot of narrowness in writing. Sometimes, I take any specific ideas expressed in the original lyric, but write in my own way. Sakhi, Iddaru, or even earlier, Bombay by Maniratnam, a very nice breathless song in Amarkkalam (dubbed as Adbhutam) all these made me popular in writing for dubbing films. But the one I like very much is the movie Devaraagam. Even ANR gaaru told he couldnt believe those songs were dubbed, they are so much like straight songs the tune, the situation, the lyric, and the lip movement too merged into the scenes so neatly.
NaChaKi: .and that didnt bring you very good name because it was not a commercial hit.
Veturi: Yes.
NaChaKi: By the time you came into the field, usually songs were first written and then tuned. Till when did you write for a tune first made?
Veturi: Tuning first and then composing lyric is not todays practice, it has been so from the days stage dramas flourished. Marathi play Bala Gandharva had many tunes which were taken directly in Telugu, they were all very popular hits on the stage. For example, the tune for the song meerajaala galaDaa naa yaanati.. from Sreekrishna Thulabharam is a great hit, its also a tune from Bala Gandharva. Same is the case with the play Sakkubai. These tunes also came into the Telugu Cinema. Hindi music directors, like Naushad, had been giving tunes since long. The only music director in Telugu, who never gave any tune without a lyric is swarabrahma K.V. Mahadevan. He always used to say "I should get a tune inspired by your lyric, otherwise where should I get a tune from!? I dont believe in that process. You first write, let your director say okay, and if its okay for you, then Ill give a tune." i.e. he is like our ancient vaaggEyakaarulu. Ramesh Naidu is another music director like that. He listens to the song fully, and decides what tune he can give. The way he tunes the song is also quite interesting, with all those emotions that the situation and the lyric demand. You know all those songs he composed very nicely.
