Two time National Award wining lyricist and ad guru, Prasoon Joshi waxes eloquent on poetry, talks at length about the dearth of strong scripts in Bollywood and more with TOI From being an ad guru to poet, lyricst and eventually winning the National Award twice over, Prasoon Joshi has mastered the art of playing many roles at a time. Whether it is being a lyricist, dialogue writer, an author (his book Sunshine Lanes hit the shelves recently) or the ad wiz, he's done them all with a perfect ease. And now he turns scriptwriter with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, which he says, "remains one of the most challenging projects," he has worked on. As we caught up with the writer, he talked at length about his only passion, writing. Excerpts: You turn scriptwriter with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, which also happens to be a biopic. How different it is to write a story based on a true character? It's different in the sense that you can't take things for granted as all the events, people and characters involved are true. So you have to make sure that whatever is written is true, maintain the facts and still create a story that connects with the audience. I spent a lot of time with Milkha Singh before I got down to write the script. You need to create a kind of trust between the scriptwriter and the character, without that trust you can't do justice to the story. Isn't it tough to juggle two roles, that of a lyricist and a scriptwriter in the same film? That's why I first finished writing the script first and then started the lyrics. Actually, these are two different art forms as lyrics are more poetic. As a lyricist you can play with emotions and sentiments more than you can while writing a scripts.

But today's lyrics are far from being poetic. And our audience is not known to read too much of poetry either. You need sanskaar to be able to enjoy and write poetry. I think that is really missing from this generation. Poetry is such a beautiful expression and an easy medium to express since it has rhyme, meter and a lot of emotions, so it would make people more sensitive. I feel children should be taught and made to read and enjoy poetry from a young age. If that doesn't happen then it will be dead. There is also a lot of criticism about the kind of songs that are being made. Is commercialism killing aesthetics in films? Well, I am not too cynical about this aspect. Everyone has to make things commercially viable, but people need to strike a balance between the two. Art and aesthetics should not get adversely affected just because you want to make a film a commercial hit. Jo dikhta hai wo bikta hai doesn't always work. As far as I am concerned, I can only write what I feel, but the market always absorbs products that are commercially profitable. So there is always this dichotomy whether to be arty or to be commercial. Do scripts also suffer due to this unwanted focus on star value and glamour in films? Definitely. There are very few directors in Bollywood who make films based on a good script. The rest are only following a formula that has worked at the box-office. Bollywood has never been known to give credit to the story and scriptwriters. On the other hand, scriptwriters never fight back for their rights either. They are actually a very humble lot and don't fight for what they rightfully deserve. This is why most of them shift from being scriptwriters to producers or directors or something else. They also desire to be acknowledged and get their due.Is there a solution Well, people have to understand that only a good script can salvage a film and make it a hit. If the scriptwriters get their desired credit and directors understand that following a formula is not the right way to go about things then a scriptwriter will survive.