‘Veera Simha Reddy' Lyricist- Ramajogaiah Sastry: I don't feel anyone is my competitor, everyone is worth writing a film song in this industry - Exclusive!

Ramajogaiah Sastry is a Telugu film lyricist who is known for his work in Telugu cinema. An Ex Metallic Engineer in Bengaluru and a former IIT’an left his job for his love for Film lyric writing. Born in Ipuru Mandal of Guntur District, he has penned lyrics for over a hundred Telugu films so far. He is very popular for writing peppy and catchy numbers in Telugu films and has also penned songs in other neighboring languages such as Kannada. This year he has written songs for all the big releases that are all set to hit the screens on Sankranthi 2023.

Today he interacted with the media as a part of his ‘Veera Simha Reddy’ getting released for this Sankranthi, ETimes Telugu reached out to the established lyric writer, and below are the excerpts from the quick chit chat.

You seem to have written for all the upcoming big releases of Sankranthi, how do manage them all? Did you ever get stuck with writer's block in between?

It is God's grace that such a thing has never happened to me and I don't take any special care of it. I have no such mental issue as well which is called writer's block. Writing has become a daily routine for me for years and out of the experience. But I’ll have to work a little harder to get the output incredible.

Of all the songs you have written for ‘Veera Simha Reddy’, 'Waltair Veerayya', and 'Varasudu', which one has shaped up well as per your vision, and which one is close to your heart?

I like all the songs, as each one is different from the others, I was supposed to work on Balakrishna’s film long back for ‘Akanda’ but that didn’t take place. So, now I worked on this film with my fullest effort and you’ll like the fourth song from 'Waltair Veerayya' "Neekemo andam ekkuva, Nakemo Tondarekkuva" even more.


Was it a huge pressure to write all the songs in a film (Veera Simha Reddy) as a single card, how tough was it to manage?

Nothing, it is a happy thing to write all the songs in a film, as you will know the complete film subject, and you can do justice to its story, whereas that may not be the case if different writers write different songs. End of the day, all the writers write to give a good output. Also, there will be no discrimination such as this is a big film and that is a small film like that.

4. Did any Balakrishna fan put pressure on you to give every song a superhit?

Nope, no such pressure from them but there will be a little pressure on us to impress them with every new song, As we know #JaiBalayya song has already been written before, and now we need to put a little extra effort to impress them with similar songs. Fortunately, they liked all the songs, and they liked the ‘Maa Bhava Manobhavaalu Debbatinnayi’ song a little more.

What is your daily routine like, to keep your creative juices flowing and to write a new song every day? What is your research for them?

Every day is different in this industry, I have no disturbances in my personal or family life, therefore I write when I like to write. At times I write early in the mornings and sometimes late at night. But, I don’t stress myself much for the sake of writing.

Have you read the complete script of 'Veera Simha Reddy', to start writing lyrics for it? And are there any such circumstances, that the film scene/dialogue has been altered to match your lyrics?

No, the director Gopichand Malineni narrated the whole film’s story and I just followed his narration and ideas. I don’t think a director/writer will change a script just because of somebody's lyrics. He’ll give us the vision, flow, genre, and derivative of the song and we’ll follow and write it.


How do you start at first, do you write the lyrics and send them to the music composer or does he composes a tune first and asks you to write the lyric as per his requirement?

Right now most of us write the lyrics to the tunes given by the music composer. 90% of other composers too follow the same format. In rare cases such as ‘Lahe Lahe’ in ‘Acharya’, I have written the lyrics first and then a tune was composed to it.

To keep the creative juices flowing, anyone should read well, It will be nice if we can read more literature. Sometimes a good song will take months to get ready, so we should be patient enough for it.

Who do you think is your competitor in the Industry? How was the journey with S.Thaman, as you travelled with him for the entire film as you were a single card writer?

I don’t feel anyone is my competitor in this industry, I just do the work that comes to me, if they feel like I'll do justice they’ll come to me if not they’ll not ask me for my work. I feel everyone is worth writing a film song in this industry. I had a good time with Thaman but I didn't participate in the re-recording part. Also, it took place in Chennai, not in Hyderabad.

You have appeared in a couple of films as an actor and will there be any chance we see you as a full-fledged actor in near future?

No Never, rarely when filmmakers ask me to appear, I’ll do that, but with no intentions of becoming a serious actor...!

Did you get any appreciation from Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna garu for your songs? If so, what are they and what are your future projects?

Yes, Balayya said he liked the 'Manobhavalu' song very much, Chiranjeevi garu too said that he liked the song I wrote for 'Waltair Veerayya' while shooting for it as I happened to visit the film sets that day and I'll be working on #NTR30 and I’m yet to start writing for it.


Did anybody complain that your lyrics are dominated by Sanskrit words these days?

It all depends on the subject and script and the time of the story, I can’t use ordinary/ modern words for a subject like ‘Bimbisara’ as it belongs to a particular period and then it is a fantasy subject. I never got any complaints such as the lyrics not being understood or such a thing so far.

Lyric writing seems to be a very competitive field for even an established writer, and how can a new writer enter this market?

Anyone can become a lyric writer but the only thing is he should be able to write for the given tune and the given language and to the targeted audience. His writing should be understood by all age groups, and he should not aim to become a lyric writer on day 1, he should initially learn its grammar then later on he can write a lyric on any scale of a film. But, lyric writing is not poem writing. We should also have the patience to rewrite and give any no.of drafts as long as the music director and film director are convinced.

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