MUMBAI: While studying hotel management in Pune, it never crossed Prashant Ingole’s mind that he would end up becoming a lyricist in Bollywood. Having penned some popular tracks like ‘Party On My Mind’ from ‘Race 2’, ‘Ziddi DIl’ from the film ‘Mary Kom’, Ingole is responsible for writing the latest ‘Gajanana’ from the upcoming film ‘Bajirao Mastani’.

While talking about the brief he got for the track from the Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh starrer ‘Bajirao Mastani’ he said, “I was asked to write an aarti for Ganpati and I wanted to do something that was never done before. So I went back home and asked my mother the different names of Ganeshji, and jotted them down. While I was writing the song I had no clue how things would turn out but fortunately, the whole team loved it and the song has got exceptional responses.”

Ingole has written a couple of other songs for the film, and is keeping his fingers crossed, waiting for their response. Ingole ensured that he added all the elements of the 17th century and yet kept it very relevant with times. For the film, he has written three songs, which he said was a long process for him.

This is the second time that Ingole is working with director/producer- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The two previously worked together on ‘Mary Kom’, and Ingole feels that Bhansali is a visionary. “For me, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is truly a ‘Bajirao’ of Indian cinema, since he is well versed with nuances and knows what exactly goes into the making of a film,” he explained.

According to the lyricist, the track ‘Party On My Mind’ was the turning point in his career, as he met director Omung Kumar only after this. Prior to the hit, Ingole had written lyrics for films like ‘Striker’, ‘Soch Lo’, ‘Love U Soniyo’ and ‘Daddy Cool’, and got off to a rather humble start. For little less than a decade, he struggled to make headway into tinsel town. When he moved to Mumbai from Pune, many people discouraged him and his dreams. “But as Walter Bagehot says, ‘The biggest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.’ A lot of people did not like my writing style and they said I could not make it big, but the only thing I would do is fight back,” exclaimed Ingole.

For him, getting into the skin of the character is very crucial while writing a song, and if he goes through the emotions of the character, it just adds on to the track. Apart from lyric writing, Ingole has also written the book ‘One Love’ which was released in August this year.

‘Bajirao Mastani’ is all set to release in theaters on 18 December, 2015.