The work of renowned Bollywood lyricist and CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi says it all. Prasoon Joshi participated in Sahitya Aaj Tak 2024 held in Delhi on November 22. During the Rajadhiraj: Love, Life and Leela event session, Prasoon spoke to moderator Anjana Om Kashyap about his new musical Rajadhiraj, love, Indian children, parenting and artificial intelligence.
Prasoon Joshi said, “What was art was gradually usurped by entertainment. Distraction took away our entertainment before we even watched it, and you don’t even know when distraction becomes an addiction. While talking about love, Prasun said, ‘If you look for love outside, you won’t find it, it is within you. If it is inside you, you will also bring it outside. Your lover appears before you according to your feelings in your mind.
How did you write the song Taare Zameen Par?
Fans still remember the song ‘Maa’ written by Prasoon Joshi. This song from the movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ by Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safari made the audience cry a lot. Talking about writing it, Prasoon Joshi said, “I was writing the song Maa from Taare Zameen Par. I struggled for a long time on what to write to reach people. You will be surprised to know that it is you who feels the emotions that you think you feel. But a lot of people he feels it at the same time.
He further said: ‘I remember my mother left me and went somewhere. Look, the kids try to put up a brave front. I was being separated from my mother, so I know what I feel. So I wrote my first line: I’m not telling you, but I’m afraid of the dark, mother. Even if you don’t show it, I love you, mother. After this I continued writing more. I was a little nervous because this is my personal opinion, how people will connect with it. I can’t tell you how many people have sent me letters and are still sending them to me. Many mothers have called their children from boarding school.
Prasun spoke about love
He also spoke about love in the session. Prasoon Joshi said, “I can understand any love.” Love is love, you can’t lock it away. When you try to add two and two four, it gets messed up. Look, the relationship with God, the feeling of dedication and love that is in it, cannot be achieved. It is important that you remain overwhelmed with love. If you think I have to achieve it, then there is nothing in achieving it. There is an end to that. Your process is real. There is nothing in receiving love, there is nothing in having love.
Prasoon Joshi also expressed his opinion on promoting Indian stories. He said, “I see a lot of confidence in India today.” Rajadhiraj, the story we have created. The confidence we have to talk about our culture. This may have been the case in ancient times, but gradually we felt that our culture was not worth telling. There is a lot of infanticide of ideas and thoughts in our country. Those stories die before their time. We might ask ourselves what there is in my story that I should tell him. Why would anyone listen to my story? We now have the confidence to tell our story.
How will you meet the challenge of AI?
Prasoon Joshi spoke about how our society is now presenting its history. Even today there are many people in the world who try to appear bigger than you. But now we are happy being ourselves. If you are speaking in English, someone will definitely stand up and say that you are saying this word incorrectly. Then tell him I talk like that. He said: ‘There was ideological harassment that is now ending in our country. A lot of new people and stories are coming out of this and I’m happy with it. You respect the idea and pay no attention to its rhetoric. I think AI will be the first to defeat us with rhetoric.
After this he was asked how we will face the challenge called Artificial Intelligence. On this, Prasun said that a well-known person had asked AI to write a poem for his daughter as Prasun Joshi. When he wrote it, the person showed the poem to Prasun. The lyricist said that maybe I write like that, the effort has been good. He said: ‘No one had thought AI would come to the creative world. I want to tell you that there is a concept of Vidya and Avidya. Everything that is created by the mind is called Avidya in Vedantic. AI is better at rhetoric. Artificial Intelligence will do things by manipulating the brain. He can’t understand love and emotions. During the session, Prasun also recited the songs and poems written by him.
