After joining mechanical engineering, R Venugopal realised that it was not his forte. He always had a flair for writing as he was exposed to the world of Malayalam and English literature from a young age by his mother Radhamani, a voracious reader and school teacher.
“I joined engineering because of peer pressure. Those days if one was good at studies, you ought to be an engineer or a doctor. Hence, I joined mechanical engineering. Halfway through the course, I understood my professional calling was elsewhere. I have always had an affinity for writing because I have been an avid reader since childhood. It was my mother who opened the world of literature to me by introducing me to some classics in English. I started reading Malayalam classics because I was fascinated by the language,” recalls Venugopal, in an interaction with Medianews4u.com.
He stumbled upon a newspaper advertisement announcing vacancies for copywriters at ad agency Chrysalis based in Kerala. He got through and was posted in Kochi. After close to two years, Venugopal and a friend decided to start their own creative agency, Art Factory. Fate played villain there – Venugopal lost his business partner to an accident.
“We ran it for over four years and I lost my friend to an accident. I was left with a choice of shutting it down or running it. During that time, Maitri Advertising was launched. I applied for a job, but they initially didn’t have a vacancy for the post of a copywriter. I worked there for a while on a retainer. After a few years, one of the founders Muthu asked me whether I can join the Calicut office as Branch Head,” recalls Venugopal.
He accepted the offer and worked as a Branch Head and Copywriter. After a few years, he came back to Kochi as Creative Director and later became one of the Directors.
Lyrics and Scripts
Cut to 2007. The Mathrubhumi group was planning to launch a radio station in Kerala. Venugopal and team were handling the advertising along with the radio station’s creatives.
“Club FM was getting ready to be launched and they were forming a team. I was given the responsibility of training the team as well. The need for a station ID came into the picture – it required a song. We thought of hiring some of the biggest lyricists in Kerala and were planning to hire either AR Rahman or Harris Jayaraj. Because of time constraints we had to drop the plan and approached an emerging music director Biji Bal in Kerala. Biji wanted to know how the entire concept of station ID worked. I penned my first lyrics for Club FM’s ID so that he will have an idea while giving music to it. It was well accepted and appreciated among the management and that’s how I became a lyricist,” explains Venugopal.
His first break as film song lyricist came in the movie Spanish Masala after director Lal Jose heard the Club FM jingle.
“He contacted me and asked me to work for his next movie for which Vidyasagar was to compose the music. I was sceptical about being a lyricist, but Biji said that it’s cake walk if you have a basic rhythm,” Venugopal recounts.
The Director of Ideation at Maitri is today a scriptwriter and lyricist who has penned over 20 movie songs. Venugopal is set to make his directorial debut with a movie which he has also penned the script and dialogues for.
He has penned lyrics for movies like Da Thadiya, Escape from Uganda, Daddy Cool, 22 Female Kottayam and Jawan of Vellimala.
While continuing his careers as advertising creative and lyricist, he had a germ of idea for a movie. He discussed it with director Jose. Thus was born his debut film as a scriptwriter. Nee-Na went on to get mixed reviews from critics and viewers.
“I got the basic theme of the movie while interacting with different women who work in radio and advertising. Many of them broke the conventional image. I found so many of them to be very strong and bold and faced life with so much courage and optimism. I wrote the script and the movie was released in 2015,” he recalls.
Venugopal is working on his next movie which will see him debuting as a director.
The ad man is also a published author. His collection of prose titled ‘Dettol’ was published by Mathrubhumi Books.
“I am an organic writer, so maybe in some years I might write another set as well,” concludes Venugopal.
What is certain is that the formats may change, but he will keep writing.
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