The nexus between the film fraternity and political parties has always existed, and has them often working in unison. Now with the elections approaching, many political parties are contacting filmmakers, music directors and lyric writers to shape their election campaigns. Several candidates, who are contesting in the elections, need lyric writers to pen positive songs about themselves. Though most lyricists are busy writing film songs, they make time to compose these political pieces too.
“Politicians from all parties Telugu Desam, Congress, TRS and YSRC have approached me and I have written songs for everyone,” says writer Sirasri. He adds that writing these songs is similar to writing film songs. “There is not much difference, except that the party or leader wants some issue to be inserted in the songs, so we have to write accordingly,” he says.
Not just lyric writers but music directors also find themselves pursued by political parties. One of the top music directors, S.S. Thaman composed music for Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party song. Another music director Vandemataram Srinivas is composing music for a couple of political parties. Top lyric writer Ananth Sriram, who is writing for the Congress party, had also written for the Praja Rajyam Party when Chiranjeevi floated it a few years ago. “Some of them give us their manifesto and want songs written according to that,” explains Sirasi.
Election time also brings work for directors, who are required to shoot short videos explaining the political party’s development and their leader’s progress. “There is this trend when elections are around. It
is true that many of us get a lot of work,” says Thammareddy Bharadwaj. He adds that he used to do this kind of work earlier, but he is no longer doing so.
Parties and their leaders invest lakhs of rupees on these campaigns. For a song, a lyric writer charges around Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000, depending on the person.
“Sometimes, businessmen also pay the campaign money to support their candidate in a particular constituency,” says a source. Some filmmakers are charging nearly Rs 5 to 10 lakhs to make a short video, including the song, music and all other equipment. “More than films, I am busy with these campaign videos right now,” says a small director, who doesn’t want to be named. Many don’t want to speak about their ‘campaign’ work because they are concerned about being associated with those parties in the future.
