When it comes to music, lyrics play as integral a role as the melody but alas, historically speaking, lyricists have not received the kind of recognition they deserve. To shed light on this, poet and lyricist Varun Grover took to social media to share a beautiful video with the loudest and the clearest message - CREDIT DE DO YAAR.
Named 'Credit De Do Yaar,' the song brings together 15 contemporary lyricists from across the Hindi film industry as they they step out of their element and lip sync to a song that speaks their heart out.
Sung by Swanand Kirkire and penned by Kausar Munir, Varun Grover, Swanand Kirkire, 'Credit De Do Yaar' draws attention to the plight of lyrics writers in the industry.
As you groove to the music and pay attention to lyrics, don't forget to watch till the end for a humble appeal by Varun Grover himself.
What's wrong?
Unfortunately, the Hindi film industry has a long history of erasing the contributions of lyrics writers. From legendary lyricist Anand Bakshi saab’s son Rakesh Anand Bakshi (who recently tweeted about a similar issue) to Irshad Kamil whose name was missing from the first lot of music CDs that arrived for Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar, many have been on the receiving end of this so-called 'human error.' With music composers, film producers and music companies benefitting from the music created collaboratively.
'Credit De Do Yaar' seeks to make people aware of how lyrics writers are, in current times, not credited appropriately on YouTube and music streaming applications.
The appeal
"We demand our moral rights over these songs to be credited and displayed with prominence on every platform and channel playing & monetizing our labour of love.
We demand a) All official music channels on youtube credit lyrics writers prominently and correctly. b) All streaming apps credit and display lyrics writers on the main screen of the song and make the name tags searchable.
All we have as our earnings are these songs. All we demand is our right. All we need from you is a change in the mindset to respect and credit the creators."
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