Priyanshu Modi interview: At Filmibeat, we love interacting with artists, authors, lyricists and poets who are passionate about their work. When I am not reviewing movies and TV shows or watching reality shows, I am enjoying busy enjoying my solace, reading my favourite book.
After winning hearts with his creative work, Priyanshu Modi is stepping into a deeply personal space with his new poetry collection, Poems For Cigarettes. Let me tell you it is not a mere compilation of verses, but a 13-year emotional archive that traces memories, relationships and transformations that shape a life.
In an exclusive conversation with Filmibeat Assistant Editor Abhishek Ranjit, Priyanshu Modi shared why poetry has become an essential part of his existence. He got candid about channelising the 13-years and turning them into meanignful content in the form of poems.
Here are excerpts from the conversation-
Q. Poems For Cigarettes is a striking and evocative title. What does it symbolize for you, and how did you arrive at it?
Priyanshu Modi: I don’t think I could answer this any better than what’s written on the back of the book itself:
“Like cigarettes burning through different emotions, each poem here has sat with me through something too heavy to hold. They carry different days of my life and different versions of me.”
Q. You describe the book as a “13-year-long emotional script.” What has that journey looked like, and why did this feel like the right time to share it?
Priyanshu Modi: I’ve been lucky enough to spend years creating work that has resonated with people. They’ve stayed with me, supported me, and grown alongside everything I’ve made. Releasing these poems felt right because, for the first time, I wasn’t anxious about how they would be received. My readers have shown me enough love over the years for me to trust that these poems would find kind hands.
Q. Was there a particular poem that became the emotional starting point for the collection?
Priyanshu Modi: There was, and it’s quite literally the first poem in the book. It’s called Filmmaking or Poetry? In many ways, it contains the entire philosophy behind this collection. It speaks about my relationship with both mediums and what writing poetry has come to mean to me over the years.
The poem ends with the lines: “Wanting to make a good film is what won’t let me die. But writing a bad poem is what I would always want to live for.” I think those two lines capture everything I feel about poetry.
Q. How much of Poems For Cigarettes is autobiographical, and where do you draw the line between lived experience and creative interpretation?
Priyanshu Modi: All of it is autobiographical. Every poem comes from something I’ve lived, witnessed, felt, or been changed by. They are about people I’ve met, places I’ve loved, conversations I’ve had, and emotions I’ve carried.
That said, poetry has its own language. Sometimes reality is rearranged to make a feeling clearer. The facts may bend slightly, but the emotion never does. Even when a metaphor takes over, the truth behind it is always personal.
Q. Were there moments when writing these poems felt more like healing than creating?
Priyanshu Modi: Almost all of them.
I started writing when I was 11, and in the beginning, I think I was simply fascinated by the idea of creating something. But somewhere along the way, creation gave way to expression. Poetry stopped being something I made and became something I needed.
Sometimes writing helped me understand what I had observed. Other times, it helped me confront things I despised. I don’t think I ever sat down to heal. I simply wrote because I didn’t know what else to do with what I was feeling. If healing happened, it happened quietly, somewhere in that process.
Quick Rapid Fire with Priyanshu Modi
At Filmibeat, we don’t miss a single beat, so how could I not play a fun-filled rapid fire with Priyanshu. Read on to know his spicy answers.
Three words that describe Poems For Cigarettes?
Honest, personal, and imperfect.
One poem in the book closest to your heart?
“When somebody said I’ve been writing a lot of love poems, so I wrote another love poem in response.”
A line from the book that has stayed with you the longest?
“How do I think of revolution and not make you the face of it?…”
Coffee, rain, or midnight-which best describes your writing process?
Tapris.
Which emotion is the hardest for you to write about?
Angst.
One poetry book everyone should read?
Lekin.
If Poems For Cigarettes were a film, what genre would it be?
Political drama.
What’s next after this book?
More poems.
