The interview titled "Taal Tales" which appears below, was originally published on Indya.com website in August 2001. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
A.R. Rahman refuses to look back and check the mistakes he has made. He opines, “It is a journey. I don’t believe in looking at the past and trying to rectify the wrongs I have done in life and in my music. I prefer moving ahead.”
Rightly so! Rahman has moved far ahead of other composers in the film industry. He has carved a niche of his own, with a special kind of music that no other composer has been able to lend to Hindi cinema. After the super-success of Lagaan – which the composer does agree took time to catch up with the audience – Rahman is ready with Nayak, a remake of the Tamil blockbuster Mudalvan. Here he talks about Nayak and his other projects…
Is the music of Nayak a rehash of Mudalvan?
Some of the songs are remixes, while Shakalaka has been redone completely. Shankar believes in everything that is loud and magnum opus, and therefore my music had to match his style. That’s the reason you may find the music of Nayak very commercial – that is the way Shankar wanted it to be.
But you definitely have moved away from composing music for lyrics that were inane and didn’t make sense at times…
Of course, I have started working with lyricists like Javed Akhtar, Anand Bakshi and Gulzar. I no longer have to match lips as I did in my earlier films.
Lagaan was absolutely different from any of your other films. What sort of research did you do for Lagaan?
I had to work mainly on the orchestration part. You will be surprised to know that the music of Lagaan was composed in one and a half months. Director Ashutosh had written down dummy lyrics on which I composed the songs and asked him whether they matched the period the film was set in. Of course, Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are great. Even Aamir has contributed a lot to the music of Lagaan. The lyrics in Lagaan were more in Avadhi. I am trying to get more friendly with the north Indian audience, trying to widen my horizons. Earlier I had only composed music for dubbed films barring two – Kabhi Naa Kabhi and Rangeela.
Kabhi Naa Kabhi had some good music but went unnoticed.
Yes, the film had a lot of problems. The writer and the director had a lot of differences, many changes were made during the making of the film. These things kind of affect the prospects of the movie, too.
When did you bring about this change in your music?
A lot of Prabhu Deva films that had my music didn’t do well at the box office. Nothing seemed to match, the lips nor the lyrics were in sync with the music. After that, I started making some conscious effort. I cut down the number of films I was doing and tried to focus on good music with good lyrics. Dil Se.. did well with Gulzar’s lyrics and, of course, Lagaan has established my music to a certain extent.
Yaadein sounds like a Rahman creation…
Well, it’s Anu Malik and not me who has done the music of Yaadein. But it is good to hear that it sounds like Rahman and it’s not me who’s saying it.
Why is it that you prefer to compose your music at night?
There is no other reason except for one that singers don’t get disturbed. Their mobiles don’t ring, so they can concentrate. Otherwise, there is no hard and fast rule for me to compose music at night. It is just that they perform better.
How much freedom do you give to your singers, and how much freedom do you get from a music company?
The notes are given to the singers. Just in case he or she makes a mistake. I let that be and if that sounds better than what has been told to them I keep it. Unlike Ilayaraja who has fixed notes and wants no changes. As far as music companies are concerned, no one has ever told me to make any changes or hire any specific singer. I work with people I am comfortable with.
Were there times you had to make compromises with your music?
No. But there are films that I would not want to make but those amount to only one percent of my work.
What happens to Shekhar Kapur-Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams?
We have finished composing the music. Now they are looking at the cast and theatres.
Coming back to Nayak… isn’t this your sixth movie with Shankar?
Yes. We share a certain rapport. Shankar is one director who wants the very commercial and contemporary type of music and he makes no compromises on that.
