As told to Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; January 1, 2017)

In 2007 when Amit Trivedi got an offer to compose music for two films ­ Anurag Kashyap's Dev D and and his assistant Raj Kumar Gupta's Aamir ­ he wanted me write the songs. But I wanted to be a singer, not a songwriter. Before coming to Mumbai in 1999, I used to belt out Kishore Kumar hits for a band called The Violent Orchestra in my hometown Lucknow. To impress music directors during those days of struggle, I had even prepared a demo CD of songs written, composed and crooned by me. But Amit, who was also a friend, kept persuading me. Finally, we came to this understanding that I would write “dummy“ lyrics for his tunes. Once the melody was approved, a regular songwriter would step in. The first song I wrote was Dev D's Yeh Duniya Badi Gol Hai. The number plays in the background when the protagonist is battling heartbreak. I listened to the tune on a Walkman and I remember having written it in a day! Anurag and everybody else loved my work. Till then, I had no idea that I was embarking on an entirely new career. Today barring the odd music buff, few can recollect that track. However, everybody remembers another number I wrote for the same film: Emotional atyachaar.