'Music is also a character in Ram-Leela'

Lyricists of the Deepika Padukone,Ranveer Singh-starrer film ‘Ram-Leela’, Garima Wahal and Siddharth speak about their experience of working with director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, their passion for writing and lot more… How was the experience of working with a director who is more like an artist?The experience was stupendous, to say the least. It was our first feature and to be involved in every aspect of filmmaking - that too with an artist like Sanjay Sir was magnificent. When we started developing the storyline (with Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet as a base) Sanjay sir gave us an open canvas and a car to drive us through the picturesque Kutch, without any particular road-map. He understands the intricate process that goes into creating a piece-of-art from an empty canvas. We involved ourselves in the costuming, the music sittings, the location recces, almost 200 shoot days, and then the post prod. So Ram-Leela for us has been a seed, a plant and now a tree in full-bloom. Since Sanjay Sir was composing the music himself and we wrote the lyrics along with the screenplay itself, the songs are closely knit to the proceedings. Music is also a character in Ram-Leela and like a character it affects the story and takes it forward.While you penned the words, was there a clash between lyricist and music director? If you can just explain the process?Best things arise from conflict. The music and lyrics are like sitar and tabla. Jugalbandi toh banti hai. Sanjay sir's first reaction to anything is mostly silence. We would ask – Sir wo antara aapko kaisa laga? He would reply – Wo antara nahi santara tha! Well in a days time that (s) antara would be set to a mind-blowing tune by Sanjay Sir. And the standard line, for the lyrics, he gave us – Tum kitne cheap ho saalo!What drew you to the world of Bollywood? And who have been your fav writers? We were into writing reality shows for television. It’s not an easy task. It’s more about quantity than quality. One thing that drew us to Bollywood is respect. In India, a writer is the least respected and often, the least paid talent. For writers, money is as important as respect. Bollywood gives you such a huge platform that the respect comes naturally. Our fave writers list is endless – Ghalib & Meer for the chaste urdu, Sahir for the lovelorn poetry, Gulzar Saab for his metaphorical brilliance, Javedsaab & Bakshi saab for the beauty of simplicity. For the scripts, Tarantino, Coen brothers, Salim-Javed and again Gulzar Saab  How do you both function as a team? Are there any ego clashes and if different points of views how do you handle them?Do writers saath mein kaam karein aur jhagde na hon? Ho hi nahi sakta. But it's all fine after a couple of punches. (Pun intended) Honestly, we feel that we are at a huge advantage being a male-female writer duo. We bring in different perspectives, different cultural backgrounds, different styles. A script is made with a lot of conflict, a lot of 'my-idea-was-better' type of lines. We, as individuals, have our strengths and weaknesses. But we, as a team, are a force. We are each others' sounding boards. So once it's passed by that wall, an idea can stand any test. There is a certain feel of religiosity in the songs - where did that stem from?Religion is the school that all of us go to, even before we start our playschools. In this case, the protagonists are called Ram-Leela. The setting is rustic. In Kutch and rural India the language is very traditional, spiritual and religious. But a religion that's universal is love. So we have used phrases like 'Ujli kori preet' to 'Laal Ishq... malaal ishq', and 'Jog laga de re' to 'Bair lagaya' in the same album.