COVER STORY: Rockstar DSP is India’s Entertainer for All Seasons

The idea of an established film music composer releasing their own music elicits a range of reactions, depending on which decade you’re talking about. In the late Nineties, it was perhaps considered bandwagoning on the Indi-Pop boom, and by the 2010s, non-film music by a big name in Bollywood was pretty much a vanity project that got little attention. In the streaming-driven world of 2023, it’s probably considered a no-brainer for composers to put out as much as possible, in as many ways as possible, with the lines between film soundtrack styles, mainstream pop and independent music being blurred.

Devi Sri Prasad aka Rockstar DSP has lived, adapted and thrived through all these movements. From releasing a full-length album called Mr. Devi as a teenager to staging energetic live performances now, there’s no slowing down the enthusiastic, hyperactive spirit in Devi Sri Prasad. Often shuttling between Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, the composer, producer, lyricist and singer balances film projects like Pushpa: The Rule, Surya 42 (aka Kanguva), Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, superstar Pawan Kalyan’s next and others with his own songs, including the 2022 single “O Pari.” It released in Telugu and Tamil as well, which marks DSP’s return to the “non-film” music world. “We are planning for more singles and some interesting collaborations. I started as a pop musician in the beginning,” DSP says over a call.

DSP is synonymous with the term hitmaker across Indian cinema songs, but he sees different aspects to it. Even with songs like “Srivalli” and “Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava” from Pushpa: The Rise in 2021, DSP says, “There are blockbusters and there are memorable blockbusters. I’ll be happy only after three years, five years, 10 years, if people still remember that song. That means a song is actually sounding good.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone India, the composer talks about his Rockstar tag, the link between maturity and evolving as an artist, his earliest hits and more. Excerpts:

Where are you at right now? In Hyderabad?

I’m in Chennai, sir. My studio, my home, everything is in Chennai. If I travel, it’s like a triangle between Bombay, Chennai and Hyderabad. But most of my recordings, mixing and everything happens in Chennai. A lot of recordings happen in Bombay and sometimes the events happen in Hyderabad.

Have you noticed any difference between the different regional film and music industries?

Nowadays, I don’t think it’s any different. We have always been seeing that songs have been accepted across languages. There is more of an acceptance now. And one more thing is when people want something new, some novelty… what is not theirs is only new to them, right? Sometimes being native is good, sometimes not being native is good [laughs].

When you released “O Pari” you said you’ve always made music with all audiences in mind. Where does that come from? Is the goal to please everybody?

Yeah, that’s a good question. I think, actually, I consider myself as one of the audiences. As artists, we find a lot of happiness when we’re on stage, when we perform for thousands and millions of people. I’m a kind of a person who gets happiness while being on stage also, and also when I’m in the audience, watching someone else perform. So both ways, I feel so happy, I feel so excited. Watching other amazing artists is also as exciting as you being on the stage and performing to people who love to watch you. Only when you enjoy something, you learn something more, and then you emit that positiveness. It’s like a cycle or a chain, then when that positiveness and new elements that you learned are added in your own style.

Actually, you need guts to appreciate another artist, okay? You will become an open book, you will start growing to music that really captivates your ear. That means you’re a real music lover. That’s why I never call myself a music composer or a music director, though I’m professionally one. I call myself a music lover. When you’re a music lover, you’ll have anything that sounds good to your ear. And as long as you’re able to enjoy something good, you will also be able to create something good, which people would love.

Another thing I’d like to say is how my stage show has shaped me into being a composer and to understand what audiences actually want. At my live shows, I sing, I dance and jump into the audience and do all kinds of nonsense on stage [laughs]. When I’m composing, I just close my eyes and keep going, kind of imagining people in front of me, so I can know if the song is actually serving its purpose.

In film music, we’ve gone from these long instrumental intros to five or six-minute songs to minute-long tunes made ready for Reels now. Do you think people won’t accept some of the older composing styles today?

I don’t think that perspective of us sitting here in a studio or theater or an office, and deciding that ‘People won’t listen to this’ is actually right. We are not always right. Actually, I think most of the time we are wrong. [Laughs] We can never judge what people will like, we can only feel what they might like, as long as you’re connected to them. That’s why I’m saying I’m one among the audience.

I might be able to feel what they like, but beyond that, because of the way social media is now with Reels and all that, audiences are looking for more.

With songs, I would say there are blockbusters and memorable blockbusters. A momentary blockbuster might be born out of a lot of reasons, like the promotion and the size of the film, the stars, the composer and the director and the budgets spent to get the song to the people.

When people ask me about “Srivalli” and “Oo Antava Oo Oo Antava” or “Ringa Ringa” and ask if I feel proud, I say, ‘I don’t own that success.’ When something becomes a blockbuster, there are a million reasons for it, like if it’s got a lot of promotions. But after five years, after 10 years, if people are still enjoying the song, then there is only one reason for that – it means a song is actually sounding good. I think that credit goes to the composer. [Laughs]

What do you think about your evolution as an artist over the years?

There are two things here. One, I never say I’m giving blockbusters or making blockbusters. I’m only saying that I’m being part of blockbusters and that itself is maturing. I think that maturity is evolution, right? It actually paves the way to your further thinking that okay, you have done a good job, but you’re a part of a collective job with a lot of people. You’re more careful, responsible and grateful for what has come your way. You should never think, ‘It’s all because of me.’

Two, being able to appreciate new technology and new musicians. I’ve seen the evolution of technology, the evolution in lyric writing and the evolution of the words being used by the people. It’s become more conversational and hook words are based on that. The hook of the song is based on the words that people use in real life.

Does being called Rockstar DSP or this all-round entertainer and a showman come with any pressure to keep performing while meeting high expectations?

No, because it’s fun, right? I think in every part of life, you have to enjoy everything that comes your way, whether it’s criticism or whether it’s appreciation. That is, again, maturity. The most important part of life or the most important thing in life is being happy. Whether it’s creativity or whether it’s just existing or surviving. Whatever it is, there is no point if you’re not happy.

I always think that way, so whether there’s any criticism or backstabbing or even appreciation, I take it all in a good way, in a positive way. You may say some criticism can also be wrong, some appreciation also will be wrong. Just because somebody appreciates us, it doesn’t mean they know everything. And if someone criticizes us, it doesn’t mean they know everything either. I always say when somebody is trying to correct you, listen to them and understand what they’re trying to say. The solution is in your hands. When there is a challenge, there is always a solution.

Take us back to Mr. Devi and your song “Pichai Rap” from that album. You were doing Tamil rap and were part of Indian hip-hop, in a way.

[Laughs] I started when I was in school and made that song then. I was still studying and I was a teenager then. “Pichai Rap” is a song about beggars. There was a huge release party for Mr. Devi and at the afterparty, they [label] asked me to sing the songs. People loved a song called “Aye Unnoda” from that album so I sang that. I was an entertainer right from my school days, like crack some jokes and entertain people, doing a bit of stand-up comedy.

So I took the mic and said, ‘This next song is called ‘Pichai Rap.’ It’s a beggar’s rap.’ And then I said, ‘In life, we’re all beggars, right?’ Everybody like stared at me and I could tell that they got offended. They were thinking, ‘Why the hell would he say something like this? We’re all dressed in nice suits and all that and this guy is saying we’re all beggars?’ There were MDs [company managing directors] and some label owners and producers… they all got so offended.

I could sense that they were all offended. Then I said, ‘See, every day we wake up and ask for we want. We want happiness, we want to prosper. We want a good promotion, we want to become number one, I want to become a music composer, you want to become an actor, you want to become a producer.’ I said, ‘Every day, we ask this from God, we actually beg this from God. So we are all beggars in front of god, isn’t it?’ And then all the people who were in a rage, they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s true.’ And they all started smiling.

As someone who’s been a part of the Indian music industry for a long time, do you feel like there was a period where Telugu film music was stagnating or sounding repetitive? Has it broken out of that spell now?

I think not only in Telugu, [it’s] in every language, everywhere, all around the world. If you start listening to all the stuff that is being made, then you’ll definitely feel that [way], over the world. Take right now even the hip-hop scene, the pop scene or anything that’s happening all around the world, we don’t feel it generally, because we only listen to the songs that are hits. I would say most of the international songs sound alike for me.

But if you dig deeper, you’ll find that one song is becoming a hit because of the lyrics, another is a hit for its melody, the rhythm or the vibe and so on. Every song has its own reason [to become a hit].

What happens is sometimes – even in filmmaking, song-making and music mixing… everything falls into a kind of typical formula. We should always keep breaking it if we have to prosper for a long time. And it’s not even for success. It is for your own satisfaction. Sometimes you will think you’re reinventing, but you don’t know whether you’re successfully doing it or not. That’s why you should always have very genuine people around you.

People around me, like my brother and my sister, are my biggest critics. Even if the whole world accepts [my music], they may still say, ‘[It’s] okay, but nothing great or nothing of your range’ or something like that. Even my engineers, including my studio boy, have given them the liberty to tell me if they don’t like something.

Technically, you might be right, but music is not just about technique, right? It’s an emotion that’s why you don’t know what will click when. You start by carrying the emotion into a film by listening to a narration and then making a song, transforming that into lyrics and then getting that sung and then that being shot on the screen and that goes to the people. Through all this process, that basic emotion should be transferred, which is not an easy task.

Sukumar sir – he directed Pushpa – he says, ‘The very first day when a narrative, a story or a situation [is communicated], the excitement I see in your face, you never lose it till the film releases.’ It may be one year, one and a half years, two years, I carry the same emotion and the same excitement regarding a situation or a song or a scene. I think I’m blessed that way.

I feel that the excitement is the most important thing, whether it’s Michael Jackson or Shakira, or Mr. Ilaiyaraaja or DSP or whoever it is. Without excitement, there is no music.

Photographer: Arun Titan
Art Director: Tanvi Shah
Art Assistant Siddhi Chavan