Amit Trivedi
I met Amit around 2002 through a common friend who was making a presentation track and he wanted me to sing that and pen some lyrics for it. Amit was producing that track and that’s the first time I saw him. He was a thin young Gujarati boy. We worked on the track together and became friends. I came to Bombay to sing, but after coming here I realized that I could write as well. So I did that, but that was mostly at a presentation level. However, whenever I did write something, people seemed to like it, including Amit. So when his band Om signed an album deal, they want- ed me to write the lyrics for them. I was a bit hesitant at first, as I had come to Bombay to sing. After they persuaded me, I wrote 5-6 songs for them and they turned out well. Amit knew I was capable of writing, so eventually at the end of 2006, he met Anurag Kashyap and asked me to write—from then on our story and collaboration started. So Amit was instrumental in making me a lyricist for Indian films. From the very beginning we clicked—I write to tunes and melody that Amit creates.Undoubtedly, my most memorable project has been Dev D, since the ball started rolling from there. That was a turning point in our lives.
This article was first published in our Music Icons issue in 2015 and we are revisiting it as a part of our celebrating 15 years of Platform magazine series.
Text Amitabh Bhattacharya