He is being touted as one of the tomorrow's big names in Bollywood. And why not for he is a part of bandwagon which is led by directors like Vishal Bhardwaj,Anurag Kashyap,Farhan Akhtar,Sahmit Amin,Imtiaz Ali to name a few. He is Shellee aka Shialender Singh Sodhi whom many would love to claim apne Punjab da muda . Son of a well known Sikh intellectual,Himmat Singh Sodhi,Shellee is a product of Indian Theatre,Panjab University. His passion then took him to Patiala where he worked with theatre legends like late Balraj Pandit . From here on Mumbai and after a struggle of nearly a decade,this lyricist and writer burst on the Bollywood scene after his songs for films like Dev D became a national rage. Who can forget the song Hiknaaal or the bhangra pop Mahi menu or more close to whom Pardesi. These including the Emotional atyachaar have topped the charts for a long time. Talking to Ludhiana Newsline,a very relaxed Shellee,recounts,During my struggle I have done everything. I have ghost written,done some ads,voice overs,hosted programmes in short did just about everything that could keep me afloat in Mumbai. My father knew Gulzaar sahib. He wanted me to act for I came from a theatre background but I told him very honestly that I was a bad actor,but could write. I used to send these couplets to my friends who suggested that I should become a professional writer. A chance meeting with singer Shilpa Rao,and soon Shilpa,Shellee and music director Amit Trivedi became a trio. Thorugh Shilpa,Amit and I met Director Anurag Kashyap and that is how the work started coming in, says Shellee. Shellee,who used a lot of folk idioms for Dev D,explains,Despite a large number of us being urbans yet our roots are very strong and when a word or a tune or a musical instrument from our region comes into play we connect instantly. Dev D was such a film where we could experiment a lot many things all because both Director Anurag Kashayp and music director Amit were open to new experiments. Shellee however cautions,This kind of freedom however does not apply to entire film industry. Industry works more or less on the phenomenon of demand and supply. At times,the producers do not like the work that we do and want us to write songs similar to those topping the charts at that time,which is fine because have to do all kinds of work. Shellee is currently working on songs for films like FOSLA (Frustrated one sided lovers association) and Coffee Shop and has also penned a song for Sanjay Guptas Acid Factory. A member of the censor board,this lyricist underlines the importance of the censor boards role. For the idea of self-censorship does not exist in our film industry, chuckles the writer.
