The interview which appears below, was originally published on The Guardian in May 2002. ©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.
Say what you like about Andrew Lloyd Webber, but success follows him around like a lost dog looking for a square meal. When his new musical, Bombay Dreams, opens in June, it will be perfectly timed to cash in on a wave of British Bollymania, celebrating the gaudy and glittering productions that roll ceaselessly from Bombay’s film studios.
While two volumes of The Very Best Bollywood Songs do chart-busting business, Selfridges ran a Bollywood celebration at its London and Manchester stores in May, the British Film Industry is hosting a bonanza of south Asian films across Britain between April and November, and the Victoria & Albert museum is presenting an exhibition of Bollywood movie posters from June to October.
Style-watchers must be breathlessly anticipating catching further glimpses of Cherie Blair wearing her shalwar kameez trouser-and-tunic outfit. Bombay Dreams is a stage musical, but its story of rags, riches, true love and gang warfare is set against the backdrop of the Bombay film industry.
Anybody who’s ever been to an Indian movie can hardly have avoided hearing A.R. Rahman’s music. Introduced to the Bollywood milieu at an early age by his father RK Sekhar, also a composer of film music, Rahman has written the soundtracks for more than 50 Indian films including Roja, Bombay and the Oscar-nominated Lagaan.
Rahman was the obvious choice when Lloyd Webber was first struck by the notion of putting Bollywood on the stage. “I’d seen a movie of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, and a month later I got a call from him, so that was a surprise,” recalls Rahman, a slight, self-effacing character given to understatement.
He’s 35, but with his jet-black movie-star hair and boyishly chubby cheeks, he could pass for 10 years younger. “I was a bit taken aback because I’d never done a stage musical before. I didn’t know what to do! But Andrew said, ‘No, it’s simple, it just has to be based on some of your numbers which I like.’ ” Lloyd Webber had found himself becoming intrigued by the Bollywood films screened by Channel 4 on Saturday mornings, and recalled how he went to see Dil Se, featuring Rahman’s music, “in this vast cinema in Harrow.
I thought it was really interesting, all these people going to see a musical.” Lloyd Webber flew to Bombay to collaborate with director Shekhar Kapur, a Hindi film-maker who had a success in the west with the award-winning Elizabeth. Between them, they hammered out the basic story of Bombay Dreams, then asked Rahman if he would like to come on board. Keen not to squander the opportunity, the famously workaholic Rahman suggested that he should write some new music, rather than just rehash his old hits.
The completed score is comprised of 60% new material, alongside some of Lloyd Webber’s favourite tunes from the composer’s back catalogue. Rahman has a degree in western classical music and has played his fair share of pop and jazz, but the bulk of his professional work has been for movies in Tamil or Hindi.
For the first time, he composed music with English lyrics, supplied by regular Lloyd Webber collaborator Don Black. “This was the main challenge for me,” Rahman explains. “There are a lot of questions about how you integrate the tune with the lyrics. I was sitting around in a flat in London and then they said the script was not ready, so I said, ‘Let’s write some songs whether it’s ready or not.’
I and Mr. Black got together, he gave me some titles and we started working on them. It so happened that most of the numbers we wrote exactly fitted the script.” With Bombay Dreams entering the final phases of production, Rahman has been working on the soundtrack album with producer Marius de Vries, now fully recovered from the shattering experience of collaborating with Baz Luhrmann on Moulin Rouge.
De Vries reckons Luhrmann’s film, with its exaggerated emotions, cartoon-like plot and garish use of music, echoes something of the Bollywood spirit. Meanwhile, the musical extracts I’ve heard from Bombay Dreams are a canny mixture of thumping dance beats, pop melodies and ethnic Indian inflections and tonalities.
The first single, Shakalaka Baby, is rampantly commercial. “Marius did some extraordinary work on Moulin Rouge, and I needed to work with someone who had an objective overview of the music,” says Rahman. “He’s adding that extra edge to the sound.” Did he like Moulin Rouge? “I liked it better than (Luhrmann’s) Romeo + Juliet. Although it was a mess and too techno and all this stuff, it had an amazing soul which could easily have got lost.”
Rahman has experienced a few cultural differences during his months in London. His film work has made him a superstar in India, to the extent that he daren’t go out in public if he doesn’t want to be mobbed. “In London I can go down to the Virgin or HMV shops, but I can never do that there. It’s impossible, it would be uncomfortable. I want my music to be a hero, not me, so I keep myself less exposed in India.” Are these fans mostly female? “No, it’s everybody, actually, from two- to 70-year-olds. Each soundtrack has its own category, so it’s not always the same people who listen to it.
When you do a movie in India, they expect you to be John Williams and Ennio Morricone and Michael Jackson all rolled into one. It challenges you to learn all different types of music.” However, India has virtually no mainstream stage tradition. “Cinema is the only entertainment in India,” he points out, “and cinema music is the only music: the other stuff is all small-time.
But I went to see Phantom of the Opera and Mamma Mia!, and I think the whole medium of the stage is incredible. In India somebody dubs over the singing for the actors, so it’s amazing to see live performers singing on stage.” Rahman may not yet be ready to topple Sting or Madonna from pop’s global rich list, even though the papers say he has sold a mindblowing 200 million albums.
“They’re sensationalising,” he murmurs. “I’m just a simple writer. A successful album in India from one film would sell more than 15 million copies. But unfortunately, you don’t get royalties! Because of piracy and all this, they just pay you a fee for composing the music and that’s it.”
A prickly question looming over the horizon is whether he will remain based in India, where his family home in Chennai (formerly Madras) houses his wife, two daughters, his mother and three sisters. As a Sufi Muslim – “It’s more about love and peace and music,” he points out – his religious and social roots are the focus of his life.
But his involvement with Bombay Dreams is already bringing him major international exposure, which has led to offers to work in Hollywood. “I’m keeping my options open. As I said, the main thing is the music. I have a lot of freedom in India, but I know Hollywood can be difficult because there are too many elements that control things.
If I had an understanding director or producer, I would love to try working there.” But for now, is London ready for Bombay Dreams? “I think the understanding of Indian culture in Britain has moved further and they’re really expecting something exciting. There’s so much of a buzz about everything Indian now, it’s really interesting. So let’s hope for the best.
