Oscar-winning lyricist Chandrabose won his first National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song Dham Dham Dham from the 2021 Telugu film Konda Polam. “My only dream was to win a National Award in my life. I didn’t have a vision beyond it. I’ve been manifesting this for the past 12 years and working really hard for it,” he shares.

The lyricist, who won an Academy Award for Naatu Naatu (RRR; 2022) earlier this year, reveals that “he had high expectation” of winning a National Award when he created the music for Rangasthalam 1985 (2018), “but I didn’t. And now, it has finally happened”.

While the 53-year-old is extremely happy about the win, he is surprised he hasn’t been appreciated as much as he expected: “After getting the Oscar, I was flooded with messages. And now that I have won the National Award, only a handful of people congratulated me. My wife asked, ‘Why are media people not calling you?’ [I think] Maybe they are tired of me (laughs) or since several Telugu people have won this time, the attention is divided.”

Chandrabose, however, is celebrating the fact that this recognition, in both the national and international arenas, has greatly benefitted him. “This year has been very fruitful for me. People in the industry now trust my sense of work. They are confident that I will give it my all. A nod by people from across the world has given them an assurance in my abilities and I am now getting a lot of offers,” concludes Chandrabose, dedicating this award to his village for being his “biggest teacher”.